After winning the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award for the 2023 season, Houston Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. increased his sack total to 11 in the 2024 campaign.

In his first season playing on the other end of the Texans’ defensive line from Anderson, five-time Pro Bowler Danielle Hunter was impressed by the former Alabama All-American.

“There’s a lot of top defensive players that I’ve played with,” the nine-year veteran said, “and I feel like Will, being Year 2, he ranks high. The kind of person he is, the kind of player he is, man, that’s a once-in-a-generation type of player. The stuff he’s done, it’s just been impressive. I’ve never seen that from another player that young in their career.”

With 18, Anderson has the same number of sacks 29 regular-season games into his NFL career as Hunter did after his first 29 contests. In Anderson’s case, that doesn’t include the 4.5 sacks that he has recorded in four playoff games.

For Anderson, the next advancement in his NFL career will come with “consistency” as he seeks to join the Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett and the Cincinnati Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson among the league’s highest-regarded pass rushers.

“I have to do it consistently every game,” Anderson said during an appearance on “The Ross Tucker Podcast.” “It can’t be a drop-off, staying healthy. And me and my coach talked about that: You got to consistently do that every game, and it’s just more, doing more. And doing more is just — we want to talk about sacks and stuff like that. The sacks are going to come, but doing more, like, more forced fumbles. Got to get the ball out more when you’re sacking a quarterback. That’s one of my offseason things that I want to work on is reaching with precision, really turning that corner tight and really going for the ball, getting more of those.

“Those guys have a lot of forced fumbles, a lot of strip-sacks and stuff like that, and that’s what separates them. That adds another thing to your career, so just doing that and just being more consistent in my game. I feel great where I’m at right now, but it’s more left on the table. Like, I’m starving for it right now. I’m hungry for it, so this offseason, I just want to continue to get better, be consistent and, man, just keep growing and learning.”

The Texans’ 2024 season ended with a 23-14 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the second round of the AFC playoffs on Jan. 18.

Anderson recorded two sacks of Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, but he also had a roughing-the passer penalty on an incomplete pass on a third-and-8 snap at the Chiefs 33-yard line. Kansas City capitalized on the 15 yards and first down by completing the series with a field goal for a 6-3 lead with 3:59 left in the first quarter.

Referee Clay Martin said the penalty was called because of “forcible contact to the face-mask area.” Three weeks after the game, Anderson maintains that didn’t happen.

“I hit his chest,” Anderson said. “But you know, I just got to be better. Me and my coach talked about it or whatever like that. Like, we got to be better just like when it comes to, like, how you hit the quarterback, and we got to drill it more and stuff like that.”

The penalty against Anderson was widely panned, as was an unnecessary-roughness call against former Alabama teammate Henry To’oTo’o that gave Kansas City 15 extra yards on its way to a touchdow20-12 lead with 11:52 to play.

After the game, Anderson said, “We knew it was going to be us versus the refs.” But now, Anderson’s attitude is: “We got to do a better job defensively of how we’re attacking our tackling and stuff like that, and our hand placement and our head placement and stuff like that. And we’ll work on that this offseason and get it fixed.”

RELATED: ‘US VERSUS THE REFS’ COSTS WILL ANDERSON JR. $25,000

Houston had similar seasons since Anderson joined the Texans as the third selection in the 2023 NFL Draft. Houston won the AFC South with a 10-7 record in 2023 and 2024, opened the playoffs with a home victory, then lost in the second round on the road.

“We’re right there. I don’t care what nobody says,” Anderson said at the end of the season. “This is a fantastic team. We’ve got our quarterback. We’ve got everything we need. We’ve got to keep stacking and keep persevering. We have a squad. We have a great team. We just got to keep finding ways.

“If you look at all the teams that’s in the AFC, they’re just finding a way to win, and that’s what we’ve got to do a better job of: Finding a way.”

In 2023, five of the Texans’ regular-season losses came to non-playoff teams. In 2024, that number was down to two, with the Tennessee Titans and New York Jets beating Houston.

“We’ve got to win these regular-season games so we can get home-field advantage,” Anderson said. “… We can’t lose to these teams like the Titans and Jets.”

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.