When DeMeco Ryans arrived in January of 2023 to be the Houston Texans’ next head coach, one of the first things he said at his introductory press conference was that his team would adhere to a “SWARM” mentality. For Ryans, “swarm” is equal parts verb and acronym, as he likes to point out that “swarm,” in his world, means having a “special work ethic and relentless mindset.”
In two seasons, the Texans, for the most part, display the traits of a team that swarms, in the Ryans sense of the word, particularly on defense. Watch the Texans play defense. They play fast, they hit hard, and they do so unapologetically. In today’s NFL, though, when you hit hard, the grim reaper from the league office may come calling. They may come looking to make your wallet thinner, through fines and suspensions.
If you combine actual fines, along with the value of game checks missed due to suspensions, the Houston Texans led the NFL in money “donated” in 2024:
Now, when it comes to directly applying the above graphic to any narratives about the Texans’ style of play, there is some nuance to this number that should be pointed out. The majority of the Texans’ $3,153,652 total comes from Denico Autry’s game checks lost, $2,176,470 in total, from his six game PED suspension. Also, Mario Edwards lost $325,359 in game checks from his four game substance abuse suspension. Neither of those violations correlate to “swarming” on defense.
When it comes to conventional fines and suspensions due to on field physicality, the Texans have the infamous Azeez Al-Shaair three game suspension from his brutal hit on Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence, with game checks lost totaling $338,233 for three missed games, and then the remainder of the team’s total is a litany of fines for various violations for $314,130.
As Texans Cap points out in the tweet below, couching the Texans’ as $3 million-in-fines level dirty is pretty disingenuous, considering who huge a chunk of that dollar amount comes from substance policy suspensions.
That said, the Texans still racked up a pretty good number in fines, even taking those suspensions out. The message is still very clear — you go up against the Texans and their “swarm” mentality at your own risk. The Texans absolutely play with a metaphorical warning label for their opponents.
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