The top of the NFL’s combined tackles leaderboard for defensive tackles features some of the position’s biggest names.
The leading tackler among defensive tackles is Jeffery Simmons, whom Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans called one of the “most elite” defensive tackles in football last month. In third place is Quinnen Williams, who has made the Pro Bowl in each of the past four seasons.
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Right between them in second place is Texans defensive tackle Tommy Togiai.
Interior defensive linemen aren’t typically asked to make a lot of tackles, but Togiai has emerged as someone who can – and will – make plays for the Houston defense.
“He’s sideline to sideline, always running to the football, always where he needs to be, and he plays the game the right way,” Ryans said. “That’s why he makes a lot of plays.”
Togiai has 40 total tackles this season and 99 since the start of the 2025 season. Only three other defensive tackles – Simmons, Jordan Davis and Cameron Heyward – have more tackles over that span.
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However, all three have played significantly more snaps than Togiai. He has played 796 defensive snaps since last year. The other three have each played more than 1,000.
Even this year, Simmons has eight more tackles than Togiai but has played 209 more defensive snaps.
Togiai said Wednesday that he knew he had made some tackles but didn’t know he ranked so highly among players at his position.
“Just try to make the plays when they show up, when it’s time for me to make a play,” Togiai said.
Assistant defensive line coach Frank Okam thinks it’s not just that Togiai can make plays. He has built up his confidence and now expects to make them.
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Togiai has the skills and attributes to be a tackling force. He is very strong at the point of attack – Okam thinks he is probably the strongest guy on the team in the weight room – and can shed blocks to get to the football. Togiai and fellow starting defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins know how to use their hands and have great awareness for defensive tackles, defensive coordinator Matt Burke said. Togiai’s eyes are also great for his position, Burke added.
“His effort is unparalleled,” Burke said.
Houston Texans defensive tackle Tommy Togiai (72) celebrates after a tackle during the first half of an NFL football game in Inglewood, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)
Houston’s scheme also helps, Okam said. The Texans don’t just want their linemen to hold up their opponents and let the linebackers finish the play. They want their linemen to impact the game as much as possible, including as tacklers.
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With great defensive ends also setting the edge, Togiai can stand out between the tackles.
“Any action coming to him, you are excited that it’s running at Tommy because we think he has a chance to show up and make a play. He’s just a natural playmaker,” Okam said.
But on a defense with plenty of stars, such as Will Anderson Jr. and Derek Stingley Jr., Togiai isn’t likely to be the first name that comes to mind when thinking of defensive playmakers. Part of that is likely because Togiai doesn’t talk much. He prefers to let his actions speak for him, Okam said.
Those actions aren’t boisterous, either. Instead, they’re steady and effective. Burke called him one of the team’s most consistent performers. Okam said the Texans use him as a model for other linemen to follow.
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“There isn’t any day you wouldn’t catch him doing the same things,” practice squad defensive tackle Junior Tafuna said. “That adds up to how he plays on the field, how he does everything.”
Tafuna and Togiai arrive at the facility to work out together at 5:25 a.m., before the sun rises, Tafuna said, when it’s “just the janitors and the coaches coming in.”
Tafuna started joining Togiai for these early morning workouts at the start of his rookie season last year, but admitted he began slacking off. Togiai talked to him about it, and now Tafuna has been consistent about joining him every morning.
“I can talk about skill all day,” Tafuna said. “But if you truly know him, his heart is the biggest thing.”
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Togiai might be a defensive playmaker, but the play Ryans and Burke both highlighted to the media this week wasn’t one in which he finished the play.
In this past weekend’s 44-22 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, running back Keaton Mitchell took a handoff and ran outside to the right, where Henry To’oTo’o knocked the ball loose for a fumble. The live ball hopscotched 10 yards downfield before two Texans were in position to jump on it.
One was Calen Bullock, the post safety. The other was Togiai, who had started the play lined up on the opposite side of where it ended.
Bullock ended up with the recovery, but Togiai’s effort didn’t go unnoticed.
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“That just shows you the type of guy Tommy is,” Ryans said.
What separates Togiai from his peers near the top of the defensive tackles leaderboard isn’t just that he is playing fewer snaps. He has also taken a different path to earn his spot among the NFL leaders in the stat.
Six defensive tackles have 30 or more tackles this season. Togiai is the only one who wasn’t a first-round pick. The Cleveland Browns, Houston’s opponent this weekend, took him in the fourth round in 2021. He then spent time on practice squads, including with the Texans, who signed him in September 2024.
His confidence has grown tremendously since then, he said. The defensive line room and coaches have been key to that, but Togiai has also known he could become the player he is today.
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“Always having belief in myself that I can do this, I belong in this league,” Togiai said, “and I can make plays in this league.”
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This article originally published at Why does Houston Texans lineman Tommy Togiai make so many tackles for a DT?.
