HOUSTON – Perspective and pride intersected for Texans rookie offensive tackle Aireontae Ersery.
Ersery absorbed a lot of knowledge the hard way during his first NFL regular-season game last Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams.
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Due to an abdomen injury that sidelined right guard Ed Ingram, a line shuffle shifted the second-round draft pick to right tackle with right tackle Tytus Howard moving to right guard and Cam Robinson replacing Ersery at left tackle.
Not playing his natural left tackle spot, Ersery had a rough debut. He allowed a sack on a bull rush by outside linebacker Byron Young. He surrendered five pressures, two quarterback hits and had a 29.4 pass blocking grade, an overall 41.6 blocking grade and a 48.3 run blocking grade in 63 total snaps, according to Pro Football Focus analytics.
Ersery is determined to improve and didn’t dismiss the rough outing. He’s not dwelling on the first game of his NFL career. He’s looking to learn from what happened.
“You can say I got a whipping or whatever you want us to call it, but just gotta put myself in position to be ready to go," Ersery said. “It’s a little bit of leaning on the coaches, leaning on my brothers around me, knowing that, man, that wasn’t the standard for me. That wasn’t a standard for this team, the culture here.
“Just knowing that you gotta play better and that motivation, when you go out to practice, that’s kinda when you’re gonna get a chance to keep building so that you don’t go out there and feel whatever.”
A former Big Ten Conference Offensive Lineman of the Year, Ersery stonewalled pass rushers during the preseason as he allowed zero pressures.
Against Penn State star Abdul Carter, the New York Giants’ first-round draft pick, Ersery shined last season as he shut him out.
Now, he’s moving on to the next game Monday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Texans lost 14-9 to the Rams as quarterback C.J. Stroud was sacked three times with one sack he rolled into and the other two coming on blitzes and standard pressure. They failed to score a touchdown.
Stroud was pressured on 42.1 percent of his dropbacks, according to NextGen Stats. He was sacked three times, one of which was on him for rolling directly into the arms of Rams defensive lineman Tyler Davis. Another sack came on an overload on a blitz by safety Leland McCullough. The third was yielded by Ersery, who got manhandled by Young and shoved into Stroud.
"I think it’s just flushing it, like last week was last week," Ersery said. “We had a chance to go down there and score in the red zone. And the game play it out how I played out, we can’t control that. The only thing we can control is how we play. The biggest thing is just flushing it and moving on.
“It was the first game, just they had a really good defensive line. You just call it how it is, they had really good offensive line. And I had that rookie patch on my jersey, pretty sure they probably seen that: ‘Oh, it’s a rook, so it was fun going out there competing against those guys."
The Buccaneers have a talented front headlined by two-time Pro Bowl nose tackle Vita Vea along with outside linebackers Haason Reddick and Yaya Diaby and defensive end Calijah Kancey.
“Similar to last week, they both got two good outside edges,” Ersery said. “Everybody just communicate, make sure that we’re clicking on all cylinders. And I feel like we’re confident this week.”
Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley said it was a collective decision to shuffle the line instead of simply replacing Ingram with backup Juice Scruggs, a former second-round draft pick and starter. The move wound up backfiring a bit from the standpoint of Ersery not looking as comfortable at right tackle as he did at left tackle.
“Collectively, we talk about that as a staff, and I think there’s a lot of factors,” Caley said. “It’s never one specific thing, but we always are going to do what we feel is best for the team.”
Ersery is a talented and massive lineman at 6-foot-6, 331 pounds with 5.01 speed in the 40-yard dash. He was lights-out during the preseason, shutting out pass rushers.
The Texans are excited about his potential, to say the least.
“It’s the body of work,” Caley said. “I don’t think one play defines a human being. I don’t think one series defines a human being. I think it’s what you see every single day when we’re on the practice field. I think, obviously, there’s things in the game. We all can get better at things.
“He competes. He’s going to have a really successful career. He pours a lot into it. Got a lot of respect for him. He’s got a bright future, and we just got to keep on getting better every day collectively, all of us.”
Robinson, who signed a one-year, $14.5 million maximum value deal in the offseason, had a 57.8 pass blocking grade.
The highest graded offensive lineman was Howard, who had a 72.5 pass blocking grade.
In a playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, the struggles in pass protection were on full, ugly display: eight sacks and 14 quarterback pressures. That was a huge factor in the sixth AFC divisional round playoff defeat in franchise history.
That’s one reason why the Texans drafted Ersery.
After shutting down New York Giants rookie and first-round draft pick Abdul Carter last season against Penn State, Ersery is approaching the NFL the same way as he matches up across from the Rams’ highly-regarded defensive front.
“Just my style of play: physical,” Ersery told KPRC 2. “I heard some of the guys I know across the league when they play me that he gonna bring his lunch. So, we gotta bring our lunch money."
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com