The Houston Texans were active in free agency, but mostly to the extent of keeping their own guys.
The Texans brought back the likes cornerback Desmond King, safety Terrence Brooks, and center Justin Britt. Houston also added outside free agents in linebacker Jalen Reeves-Mabin and guard A.J. Cann.
According to Sam Monson and Brad Spielberger from Pro Football Focus, the Texans’ overall body of work in free agency was considered “average” compared to the rest of the AFC.
Houston’s strategy in 2021 of signing a ton of veterans to one-year deals arguably paid off, as [Maliek] Collins — who accumulated 31 quarterback pressures and earned a 71.0 pass-rush grade in 2021 — and [Kamu] Grugier-Hill — who played twice as many snaps as any season prior and had 14 tackles for loss or no gain, which was tied for ninth among linebackers despite Grugier-Hill missing time to injury — re-signings indicate.
Compared to the rest of the conference, the Cincinnati Bengals earned a “good” designation as did the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers. The Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, and Denver Broncos were given “above average” evaluations.
According to general manager Nick Caserio, the Texans’ free agent strategy was to bring in veterans that the younger players would look up to.
“When the players walk in to the building and say, ‘What do we ask of a Houston Texan? What are the characteristics and behaviors that we want to embody?’ When you look at those players, those are the things we want those rookies to see,” said Caserio. “You want those rookies to have some of the same qualities, but obviously this is all going to be new for them. I would say part of the team-building process is we added some of those players back to our team, and as we added new players to our team, as well.”
The Texans still have work to do to assemble the 2022 roster as the NFL draft is April 28-30 in Las Vegas.
