How Texans’ Jalen Pitre, healthy again, delivers such hard hits: ‘Want-to, determination,’ toughness, technique
By Aaron Wilson:
Jalen Pitre uncoiled his body with incredible power, bringing a ton of force and torque into his aiming point as he delivered a crushing, clean tackle with his right shoulder that sent Chicago Bears tight end Cole Kmet flailing to the ground last season.
The hit-stick tackle initially drew a penalty flag for unnecessary roughness that was quickly picked up as it was clearly not an illegal hit as the Texans’ nickel-safety and Stafford graduate didn’t make contact with his helmet and stuck the much larger Kmet in his shoulder pads.
Kmet was shaken up on the play and later acknowledged on his podcast it was the hardest hit he’s ever absorbed.
How does the Texans’ hard-hitting nickel deliver such punishing tackles?
“I think it’s definitely just want-to, just a determination to want to hit somebody and just bringing everything you got and not slowing down,” Pitre told KPRC 2 at his first youth football camp at Stafford High School, his alma mater. “I think that’s the biggest thing. And then, obviously, our coaches do a good job at teaching the proper ways to tackle, the proper angles to hit from, and the legal way to do it.”
Pitre made a faster recovery than he anticipated from a torn pectoral that ended his season last year and required surgery to repair the damage. Now, he’s back to full activity and has been flying around at organized team activities making an impact. Initially, Pitre thought he might have to miss some time during the spring.
“I just trust the process,” Pitre said. “Shout out to the trainers and the Texans staff and my coaches for giving me a timetable and progressing me along the way. I think I’m at a great spot right now.
I’m thankful to be out there with my teammates and back to having fun and back to making plays. So, you know it’s definitely fun to be back out there."
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