The Texans have agreed to a contract with third-round pick Sam Montgomery, Tania Ganguli of the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday.
The 6-foot-3, 262-pound Montgomery will play outside linebacker in the Texans’ 3-4 scheme. He recorded 19 sacks in three seasons for LSU.
After the selection of Montgomery, Texans linebackers coach Reggie Herring called the rookie linebacker a “big, strong, powerful, explosive individual.”
“His play strength is (the) exception, it’s about average,” Herring said, according to a transcript from the club. “As far as the run game, he has that play strength that you need to play early in this league. I think he’ll blend in well as far as the run game and setting the edge in our package.
“The other thing is when we look at our outside backers, we look at pass rush as a priority in our defense. He does bring an element of rush off the edge that is, once again, probably undeveloped and raw, but he has the basic ingredients, and that is, he can rush speed to power.”
Montgomery, who garnered first-team all-Southeastern Conference honors from league coaches in 2012, declared for the draft with one season of eligibility remaining.