HOUSTON \u2013 Texans linebacker E.J. Speed covered his face with his left hand while waving his hand back and forth in tune with the music.<\/p>\n
The scuba dance, performed by Speed and Toro, during a special Parker Elementary School assembly, was part of their fun encouragement for students prepping for the annual STAAR test<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we are put in this place to motivate them to chase their dreams,\u201d Speed said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great event to motivate them to get to the goals they need. Growing up, it\u2019s always good to hear positivity. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very humbling. I did well on this test. It was great. It\u2019s just a test. If you prepare, you can have fun with it. I feel like the kids understood that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speed reached his own level of understanding as a key part of the Texans\u2019 defense in his first season in Houston. The former Indianapolis Colts starter helped the Texans reach the playoffs for the third year in a row and win one playoff game before their season ended in the AFC divisional round.<\/p>\n
Speed felt confident enough about the Texans\u2019 ability to contend and his fit in the defense and special teams to sign a two-year, $13 million maximum value contract rather than head to free agency after his original one-year, $5 million contract expired.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust having a blessing to go back and fight with those guys that I fought with last year,\u201d Speed said. \u201cWe created our brotherhood. They accepted me last year. Now understanding that more is expected, so me just raising my level of play and I\u2019m sure everybody else is on the same trend because I know the heart of this team. Everybody just raising their level of play to reach the ultimate goal and go get that Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A tall and rangy Tarleton State graduate, Speed signed with the Texans last year over opportunities in free agency with the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers. He was expected to draw significant interest around the league if he had hit the marketplace.<\/p>\n
Instead, he stayed with the Texans. And expectations are high for them after three consecutive playoff appearances.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t really pay too much attention to anything we did last year,\u201d Speed said. \u201cWe\u2019ll start a new foundation to what we need to go get. So, whether we won the Super Bowl last year or didn\u2019t, it\u2019ll still be the same thing this year to go get that ring. So, anything we did last year is kind of spilled milk at this point and so what have you done(3:22)for me lately. I\u2019m sure everybody in the building is looking at their job and back to work and go back and go win that ring.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Speed emerged as an important part of the defense, recording 62 tackles, three for losses, two quarterback hits and one pass defensed in 16 games with nine starts for a playoff squad. He played 44 percent of the defensive snaps and 52 percent of the special teams snaps last season.<\/p>\n
Since the season, the Texans have added several key pieces to the roster while retaining Speed, defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins, offensive guard Ed Ingram, extending tight end Dalton Schultz and defensive end Danielle Hunter. They have acquired running back David Montgomery, offensive linemen Braden Smith and Wyatt Teller and safety Reed Blankenship.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that they added some great players,\u201d Speed said. \u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019re on their Ps and Qs and doing what they need to do for that. Management is management. I\u2019m not here to create a roster. I\u2019m here to play, so anything that they do I got a great confidence in them. Look at the roster they built so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we did fall short. So, I can\u2019t say that it\u2019s something that I\u2019ll tweak. Anything that I need to adjust to be better, somebody can tell me or advice from in the building they can help me become a better football player become a better person become a better man in any area of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and c<\/a>lick2houston.com<\/a><\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Texans linebacker E.J. Speed covered his face with his left hand while waving his hand back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[4953,7,221,253,2368,6,117352,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-862856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-e-j-speed","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-texans","12":"tag-houstontexans","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-parker-elementary","15":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116378641744700658","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}