The moment for Dallas Cowboys edge rusher James Houston came in Week 4 against the Green Bay Packers, when the whole world was focused on an edge rusher on the opposite team in former Cowboys star Micah Parsons.
In that moment, with all eyes on a prime time game, Houston came up big with a sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery in a 40-40 tie.
After 5 games, Houston leads the Cowboys with 3.5 sacks and is only player on the roster with more than one sack this season.
With the Cowboys scrapping to a 2-2-1 record headed into critical Week 6 road game against the vastly improved Carolina Panthers, Houston was singled out as the Cowboys’ breakout star this season by Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon.
“By no means has the 26-year-old journeyman replaced Micah Parsons, but he’s got 3.5 sacks in his last four games and his impact has gone beyond that on the edge in Dallas,” Gagnon wrote on October 8.
The Cowboys signed Houston to a 2-year, $2.75 million free agent contract on July 22.
Parsons, who signed a 4-year, $186 million contract extension with Green Bay on August 28, has 2.5 sacks through the first 5 games.
Cowboys Houston’s Third Team in 2 Seasons
The Detroit Lions picked Houston in the sixth round pick (No. 217 overall) of the 2022 NFL draft out of Jackson State in 2021, where he played for head coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.
Houston had 8.0 sacks for the Lions as a rookie in 2022, and did it in just 7 games.
He only managed 1.0 sack in 11 games over the next 2 seasons and spent 2024 split between the Lions and Cleveland Browns.
Parsing Out Houston’s College, NFL Backstory
Houston played his first 3 seasons of college football at the University of Florida before he transferred to Jackson State, where he had one of the more dominant seasons in program history as a senior playing for Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders.
Houston, 6-foot-1 and 241 pounds, earned the nickname “The Problem” in college and had one of the greatest seasons in school history in his lone season playing for Sanders; 70 tackles, 24.5 tackles for loss, 16.5 sacks, 7 forced fumbles and one interception on the way to earning FCS All-American, All-SWAC and SWAC Newcomer of the Year honors.
Houston impressed at Pro Day with a 39 inch vertical leap and 22 reps in the 225-pound bench press but was just a tad slow — for his size — with a 40-yard dash time of 4.74 seconds.
He also earned a cool nickname at Jackson State — The Problem — because of the havoc he wreaked on opposing offenses throughout the year.
” ‘The Problem’ was just that in his lone season with the Tigers, raking in high-impact production at an impressive rate,” NFL draft analyst Lance Zierlein wrote in 2022. “His Florida tape gives insight into his potential as an aggressive, downhill linebacker with modest instincts and results from the middle. He’s shorter and smaller than teams like along the edge but plays with an instinctive rush approach that effectively utilizes his explosive athleticism and bend.”
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