Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment,
we focus on Houston Texans safety Calen Bullock, the third-round pick in 2024 who has become that rarest of entities — a deep-third defender you simply never want to test.
If you weren’t already up on how great the Houston Texans’ defense is (and since you’re reading this on a Houston Texans website, I dare say you are), Thursday night’s 23-19 win over the Buffalo Bills sure put this defense on the national radar. The Texans rank third in Defensive DVOA behind only the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams (another upstart defense worthy of your attention), and their 16.5 points per game allowed is the NFL’s best.
Josh Allen was sacked eight times in that game, the most in his NFL career, and he was pressured on more than 20 of his dropbacks. The Texans took Allen to the ground on 53.3% of his pressured dropbacks, and both edge-rushers — Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. — were lining up to the buffet over and over.
But when head coach DeMeco Ryans was asked postgame about his favorite part of the defensive performance in the game, he pointed immediately to the work done by second-year safety Calen Bullock. Bullock was targeted twice against the Bills, and he responded brilliantly. The only catches he allowed were the ones he made — Bullock gave up no catches, but he had two interceptions, and his second pick with 24 seconds left sealed the deal.
“The thing that stood out to me… The way our defensive line hunted, of course that was great, but Calen Bullock is the guy for me,” Ryans said. “The way he went out and intercepted the ball two times, and forced a fumble to get us in plus territory there. My favorite play is the one that ended it. A lot of emotions going on on the sideline through that entire drive. For Calen to come down with the interception, that was my favorite play, because it meant it was over.”
The Texans have been up on Bullock’s range and fluidity since they traded up to take him with the 78th overall pick in the third round of the 2024 draft. It’s why they put him in the deep third more than any other defender in the NFL in his rookie season — 1,063 of his 1,113 snaps were as the last line of defense. That’s a major test for any rookie, but Bullock was up to the challenge. In 2024, he allowed 13 catches on 29 targets for 159 yards, two touchdowns, five interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 45.7.
Now, he’s even better. So far in 2025, he’s allowed eight catches on 20 targets for 109 yards, one touchdown, four interceptions, two pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 35.2. Per Next Gen Stats, Bullock swung 35.7% in win probability for the Texans against the Bills with his three turnovers — two picks and a forced fumble.
“I think his confidence, really probably towards the second half of last year as he got all those reps under his belt, his confidence started growing,” defensive coordinator Matt Burke said of Bullock back in August. “I think he came back this year hitting the ground running from a communication standpoint, understanding. I think that [added] some of the nuance to his game. I think he’s just taking it upon himself to put himself in some different positions from playing a little bit closer to the line of scrimmage. We haven’t done that as much with him in the past. So, I think he’s leading the charge on that of like, ‘Hey, I want to get some work at this spot, or as a strong safety, or just at a different rotation.’
“I think we all know how good he is in the deep end of the field and how valuable he can be getting the ball. But I think he’s really shown growth to me, and [he’s] putting it on himself to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to try to play down here a little bit more, do this or tackling.’ We keep stressing working on tackling with all these guys. So, [I] really like the way he’s attacked the offseason coming from February on.”
Well, it’s not as if the Texans have moved Bullock around that much. This season, he’s lined up in the deep third on 616 of his 683 snaps; only Nick Scott of the Carolina Panthers has been a deep defender more often in 2025 with 623 snaps. But this season as a box or slot player, Bullock has allowed three catches on six targets for 17 yards. It’s not that Bullock can’t play downhill; it’s more that when you have a legit deep-third eraser, which every defense in football at any level would love, why mess with success?
”Them guys [the Bills] were driving down the field; the tension was high,“ Bullock told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt postgame. ”I was a post safety, and my eyes was back there. D-line got to him and made him make a bad decision. He threw the ball right to me.
“Every single day, we step out there on that field, we know we got some bad guys on our team in front of us, and our D-line know that we’re going to do our job in the back end. So it’s just all of us, we’re going out there, we trust each other. We trust each other. We’re the best defense in the NFL.”
They may very well be — if you asked the Bills, they’d probably tell you so without a moment’s hesitation. And as much as Hunter and Anderson make headlines as the edge terrors, and as much as Derek Stingley Jr. is as good as any cornerback in the NFL, it’s Calen Bullock’s ascent that has allowed this defense to play free, fast, and loose, with ill intentions toward any opponent.
