Green Bay Packers expected to add former Houston Texans lineman

Green Bay is expected to sign defensive end Whitney Mercilus just one day after the Houston Texans parted ways with the veteran, per Aaron Wilson.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Mercilus turned down other offers that would have paid him more for the opportunity to go to Green Bay to potentially compete for a championship.

While in Houston, the 6-foot-4, 258-pound defensive end recorded 357 total tackles, 72 tackles for loss and forced 13 fumbles. He started double-digit games for the team in six of his nine complete years there.

Mercilus, 31, was an All-American at Illinois and the 26th overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. He had spent his entire NFL career to date with the Texans, and the franchise offered kind words about the player in their official announcement about his release.

“There aren’t many players in franchise history who have impacted our organization and community the way Whitney Mercilus has,” said Cal McNair, Texans chair and CEO. “My family and the entire organization will always consider Whitney a Texan.”

Mercilus was known for making a huge impact in Houston off the field as well. The lineman advocates for and provides assistance to families of children with disabilities and special needs through his foundation, WithMerci. He was the Texans’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2018.

Packers red zone defense is historically bad

Green Bay hopes the addition can help them right the ship when it comes to red zone defense.

The Packers pass defense currently ranks fourth in the NFL in yards allowed per game, but their run defense has been average.

They have the worst red zone defense in the country; the Packers have allowed opponents to score a touchdown on every red zone possession this year.

In the last 40 years, since the Elias Sports Bureau starting tracking play-by-play, no team has failed to get even one red zone stop through six games, per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky.

“The positive is we haven’t done very well in that department but we’ve still been able to win games, so hopefully that will start to even out a little bit, you’d think at some point,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said this week. “But we’ve got to continue to grind and work at it and maybe look at what we’re doing and try to switch some things up.”