Calen Bullock

Career StatsC+

Year	Team	GP	INT	PD	Tkl
Career		34	9	21	118
2025		17	4	10	64
2024		17	5	11	54

Current Contract

Contract Value Index (CVI)

The Houston Texans struck gold with Calen Bullock's four-year, $5.9M extension, securing an A+ CVI that represents exceptional value in today's safety market. At just $1.5M annually, the Texans are paying below-market rates for a solid starter at a premium position where competent safeties routinely command $8-12M per year. Bullock's youth works strongly in Houston's favor here — they're locking up a player who should be entering his prime years while paying him like a rotational piece. The contract structure is equally shrewd, with only $1.1M guaranteed, giving the organization maximum flexibility if Bullock's development stagnates while capping their downside risk. This is exactly the type of cost-controlled extension that allows championship-caliber teams to allocate resources elsewhere, and the Texans just bought themselves four years of premium positional value at a discount rate that will look even better as the salary cap continues its upward trajectory.

Performance Analysis

Calen Bullock is a 22-year-old second-year safety for the Houston Texans who has quietly emerged as one of the more intriguing young defensive backs in the AFC South, bringing legitimate ballhawk instincts to a Houston secondary still finding its identity. Earning a C+ overall grade across 34 career games, Bullock sits in the middle tier of starting safeties leaguewide, but that designation undersells the trajectory of a player who has graded out at B in each of his first two NFL seasons — a level of consistency that is genuinely rare for a player his age still acclimating to the speed and complexity of the professional game. He is not yet a difference-maker in the traditional sense, but the building blocks are unmistakably present, and the Texans clearly view him as a foundational piece of a young, ascending defense. Where Bullock separates himself from the average safety is in his coverage awareness and ball production, and the numbers back that up in a meaningful way. His pass deflections per game sit at 0.59, essentially dead even with the elite threshold of 0.60 and nearly double the NFL average of 0.30 — a figure that speaks to exceptional positioning, anticipation, and closing speed in zone coverage. His interception rate of 0.24 per game also outpaces the league average of 0.16, falling just short of the elite benchmark of 0.29 but placing him comfortably in the top tier of ball-hawking safeties in the NFL. The one area that demands attention is his run support and physical presence closer to the line of scrimmage — his 3.76 tackles per game falls just below the NFL average of 3.85, a modest but telling gap that suggests he is still developing the instincts and aggression needed to be a complete, every-down safety rather than a coverage specialist. At just 22, Bullock has a legitimate ceiling as a starting-caliber, coverage-first safety in a league that increasingly values that skillset, and if his tackle efficiency catches up to his ball-production ability, he has the tools to push into the B+ range and draw comparisons to players like Jessie Bates in his developmental arc. The key variable to monitor heading into his third season is whether he can close that gap in run defense while sustaining his near-elite disruption rate in coverage — if both trends hold, Houston may have found a genuine cornerstone of their secondary at a bargain.

Current Sentiment

Calen Bullock enters the 2026 season as one of the more intriguing developmental safeties in the AFC South, having accumulated nine career interceptions and 21 passes defended across his first two NFL campaigns. Media coverage heading into the new year reflects a nuanced picture: while analysts have acknowledged a sophomore-slump narrative, Bullock himself has been vocal alongside fellow DB Kamari Lassiter in pledging a stronger second chapter, signaling accountability and competitive drive. His standout performance in a blowout victory over the Steelers generated genuine positive buzz, with Bullock contributing to a Texans defense that has begun to cultivate a reputation as one of the league's most aggressive units. However, reporting that Houston may face a 'heartbreaking decision' regarding its Pro Bowl defensive back duo introduces a layer of roster uncertainty that tempers the overall optimism surrounding his trajectory. On balance, Bullock is perceived as a high-upside young safety on the cusp of a breakout — talented enough to be part of a difficult front-office conversation, but still needing a defining season to cement his standing as a true starter.