Christian Harris made his NFL debut on Sunday, and Houston Texans followers can expect to see a lot more of the former Alabama linebacker now that he’s healthy again.

“Who are our best options that we feel like we can be successful with defensively?” Houston coach Lovie Smith said on Monday. “If we think that he’s one of them, we’ll find ways for him to get on the field. I would say Christian Harris is one of those guys, and we found a way to start the process yesterday.

“He didn’t do anything yesterday to say we should give him less. To me, he did things that say we should give him more.”

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Harris joined the Texans in the third round of the NFL Draft on April 29, but he spent the first five games of the season on injured reserve with a hamstring problem. Harris returned to practice on Oct. 5.

Activated on Saturday, Harris played for the first time since Jan. 10, when he tied for the team lead with seven tackles, recorded three sacks, registered four tackles for loss and forced a fumble in Alabama’s 33-18 loss to Georgia in the CFP national championship game.

“It was my first game in a long time, too” Harris said about his first NFL outing. “I’m just trying to correct all the things that I really can right now so we can win next week. …

“It was fun to be able to be out there again. Obviously, I want to continue to get that opportunity and, obviously, develop with that.”

Harris made one tackle in the Texans’ 38-20 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. He didn’t start, but he played 38 defensive snaps – 20 more than either Garrett Wallow or Kamu Grugier-Hill, who flanked middle linebacker Christian Kirksey to open the game. Kirksey played all 56 defensive snaps.

“First game for any athlete, any professional player, I thought we saw a lot of that,” Smith said of Harris’ debut, “but it got better and better. There are some flash plays that we really liked. I go back to when I initially started talking about all the rookies that play for their first time. We talked about flash plays, some plays to give us hope later on. We had a lot of those for Christian Harris yesterday. Liked a lot of things he did. Saw him running around, being aggressive, being physical, taking on lead blockers, a few tackles. You’d like to have a couple tackles back, and then just blending into the game.

“We gave him a limited package this past week, and, hopefully, we’ll continue to grow that.”

The Texans return to AFC South play in Week 8 when they take on the Tennessee Titans at 3:05 p.m. CDT Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston. The Titans have a four-game winning streak. The Texans are 1-4-1.

“I think the first game there’s some things I can definitely improve on,” Harris said. “That’s kind of just how I’m looking at it right now and trying to find ways to do that so I can help my team win next week, so that’s really all I care about right now.”

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