A popular AFC sleeper team at the beginning of the season, the Houston Texans were dealt a crushing blow on Monday when linebacker Mario Williams was placed on injured reserve with a torn pectoral muscle, ending his season.
Williams suffered the injury Sunday while the Texans were playing the Raiders at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Late in the first quarter, Williams left the game after getting injured while sacking Oakland quarterback Jason Campbell. He watched the second half from the sidelines.
"I feel so bad for Mario, because he's such a heck of a player," said Texans head coach Gary Kubiak. "He had really taken to the position he's playing. He was improving every day in practice, improving in every game. I'd never seen him so upbeat about what was going on."
The first overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft, Williams played his first five seasons at defensive end but transitioned to outside linebacker this season in new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips' 3-4 system. Through the first five games he had recorded five sacks and a forced fumble.
A two-time All-Pro player, the 6-foot-6, 285-pound Williams is the franchise's all-time sacks leader with 53. Rookie Brooks Reed will take over for Williams in the starting lineup. The Texans, 3-2, play at Baltimore, 3-1, on Sunday.
"It's a great opportunity here in his young career to step up and be a starter," Kubiak said of Reed. "That's why we drafted him. [He's] very capable of doing it. He'll get his opportunity here."
