When it comes to college football rivalries, it doesn’t get much more heated than SEC powerhouses Georgia vs. Alabama.
So, imagine Texans second-round draft pick Kamari Lassiter’s surprise last week when the former Georgia Bulldog first learned that the man who drafted him 42nd overall in last month’s NFL Draft and is now his new head coach, DeMeco Ryans, is a former star the Alabama Crimson Tide.
“Coach went to Bama? I didn’t know that,” Lassiter said with a serious face. “Those two programs [Alabama and Georgia] – very high-profile programs – have a lot of similarities. The standard that was set at Georgia is super high. It doesn’t matter how old you are, it doesn’t matter how many years you’ve played. The standard is the standard and it’s always going to be that.”
And chances are more than good that the reason the Texans made Lassiter their first pick of the draft is because of that standard. Lassiter was a star cornerback in one of the nation’s elite programs and in the toughest conference.
The hope is there will be a lot of carryover as the Texans look to place Lassiter opposite rising star cornerback Derek Stingley, Jr.
“Lassiter is position flex, has played on the perimeter,” said Texans general manager Nick Caserio. “He plays with a linebacker-type mentality, but he’s a corner.
“He’s tough. He’s physical. He’s not slow. Good football player, one of the top makeup players we identified throughout.”
Versatility is one of the most exciting attributes of the 6-foot, 181-pound defensive back. The Texans drafted him thinking he could play either boundary or field cornerback spots.
But while folks are trying to figure which position to put Lassiter, the blunt-speaking youngster just wants to get on the field.
“I play football,” he said. “I play defense wherever they put me at. It doesn’t matter. I’m going to do it to the best of my ability.”
Ryans isn’t concerned with figuring out how many positions Lassiter might be able to play this season. He just wants him to get comfortable on an NFL playing field. The rest will eventually take care of itself.
“With Kamari – again, he’s a very sharp young man,” Ryans said. “He can play inside and he can play outside.
“He did that at Georgia, and whatever that day calls for, we’ll put him out at corner, we’ll put him out at nickel, and we’ll see what happens.”
The expectation is that a lot of great things will happen wherever he lines up on the field. Lassiter was one of the top defensive backs in the SEC, where he earned second-team All-SEC recognition in 2024 after leading the Bulldogs with eight pass breakup. He had 37 tackles and 3.5 stops for loss.
For Lassiter, now it’s about showing what he can do at the highest level of football.
“I feel like I just always want to prove myself right,” he said. “I never sought out to prove anyone wrong. I just thought that I could always be here. I always thought I could play at the highest level in college and my family always believed that. It’s just always about proving ourselves right.”
The Texans also added ballhawk USC safety Calen Bullock in the third round of drafting, potentially giving them one of the youngest and most exciting secondaries in the league next season.
Bullock and Lassiter have already started to bond in ways that can carry over to the field. The two first met by chance last summer in Miami.
“We didn’t really know each other at first,” Lassiter said. “I just knew he went to USC, I went to Georgia. I knew he was good at football, he knew I was good, but we kind of chopped it up just a little bit, and then fast forward all the way to draft night and we both get drafted to the same team.
“That just kind of played over into here, so we’ve just kind of been getting a little bit closer and I feel like we’ll end up being real close by the time it’s all said and done.”
Lassiter is also getting a feel for the man who in college would have been his rival. And that connection has also been all positive.
“I think Coach Ryans is just a really good guy,” he said. “You can really tell he loves what he does. You can tell his passion for the game, his passion for his players and his passion for his team. That’s somebody who I’d love to play for.”
