Houston Texans DE Denico Autry Suspended for Six Games for PED Violation

The Houston Texans have lived a very charmed life this offseason. They’ve hit multiple home runs in free agency, trades, and several solid doubles and singles in the draft. C.J. Stroud is second on the preseason odds for league MVP, and they have zero contract drama going on right now with any players on the team. It’s nice to be a Texans fan!

Alas, it is a long season, and at some point the gods will frown on your team . The first frown from the gods arrived for the Houston Texans on Tuesday late morning, as the league announced that Texans defensive end Denico Autry will be suspended for the first six games of the season for violating the league’s Performance Enhancing Drug (PED) policy.

Autry released a statement in which he claims he was given a prescription that, unbeknownst to him, included a banned substance. Here is his full statement:

#Texans DE Denico Autry is being suspended 6 games for violating NFL policy against performance enhancing drugs.

He has released a statement saying, “It was important to me that the NFL know that I did not intentionally or even knowingly ingest a banned substance.“

Full: pic.twitter.com/1zc7k8eyTb

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 29, 2024

Make no mistake, this is really bad news for the Texans. Here are my thoughts:

This takes away a significant, versatile piece of the Texans defense
When the Texans gave Autry a two-year, $20 million contract, he was one of their first signings in free agency. Coming off an 11.5 sack season in 2023, and after several seasons of tormenting the Texans as a Tennessee Titan and Indianapolis Colt, it felt good to land Autry, even at the age of 33. The signing of Autry looked even better once the Texans signed stud DE Danielle Hunter (16.5 sacks in 2023), because this meant Autry could bump inside to defensive tackle on passing downs, giving the Texans one of the most fearsome third down pass rush groups in the NFL. That now goes on hold for six weeks to start the season.

Thankfully, the schedule is somewhat forgiving early
The one saving grace in all of this is that the Texans schedule is pretty forgiving in the early part of the season, compared to the back half of the season. I’m sure Autry will hate missing the opener in Indy against his former team, but after that the Texans play the Bears at home, travel to Minnesota, and then have back to back home games with Jacksonville and Buffalo, before closing out the first six weeks with the woeful Patriots. In all, that’s five teams that missed the playoffs last season. It’s unfortunate for Autry, who might have piled up some numbers in those games.

Let the J.J. Watt speculation begin!
J.J. Watt revealed at his charity softball game back in early May that he told DeMeco Ryans if he ever needed him, to call him and he would come play. Kind of a “break glass in case of emergency” situation. Judging by Watt’s Instagram account, he is certainly in playing shape. The dude is still chiseled out of granite. However, I don’t know that (a) this is the level of emergency Watt, or Ryans for that matter, envision being a Watt-level crisis, or (b) if Watt even wants to come back any time before, say, November. I KNOW he has no desire to do an NFL training camp. Autry’s suspension creates a fun conversation piece, but there is no way Watt is on the field for the Texans in Week 1.

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