Houston Texans: Mel Kiper selects Byron Murphy in mock draft
It is now mock draft season for NFL media, and ESPN has sent out Mel Kiper’s first mock draft of the season, where he has the Houston Texans selecting defense with their first-round pick.
The Houston Texans have the 23rd overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft and for ESPN.com, on their ESPN Insiders page (subscription required), NFL Draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. has the Texans looking to improve on their defense, selecting Washington cornerback Byron Murphy with their first-round pick.
Houston needs to work on the cornerback position of the team, as it did hamper them late in the year and in the playoff loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Though the Texans did win the AFC South championship this past regular season, the playoff was a huge disappointment, and it is now time to look at the future of the franchise.
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As for the Kiper Jr. mock draft pick of Murphy, in his final season with the Huskies, the 5-11, 182-pound sophomore cornerback finished with 37 solo tackles, one forced fumble, four interceptions and 13 passes defensed. His total tackles number was 58, and he scored one touchdown as well.
When Murphy decided to enter the NFL draft, Kyle Bonagura of ESPN.com wrote the following on Murphy:
"“In two seasons, Murphy, a native of Scottsdale, Arizona, started 20 games and intercepted seven passes. He missed seven games in 2017 due to a fractured bone in his foot.”"
Even with the broken foot injury in his past – while he has accolades as being one of the best cornerbacks in the draft – the question is would you rather the Texans focus on defense in the first round or the offensive line?
There is no issue with the Texans selecting a cornerback in this draft, but with two second-round picks for Day 2 of the 2019 NFL Draft, maybe they should lean more toward taking the best available offensive tackle in the draft in the first round, even if they would have to trade up to select such a player as Jonah Williams (Alabama), Cody Ford (Oklahoma), Jawaan Taylor (Florida) or Greg Little (Ole Miss),
The No. 1 priority of the Texans this offseason needs to be fixing the offensive line the best possible way and making sure that quarterback Deshaun Watson isn’t surrounded enough by the defense to be sacked 62 times ever again. Sure, some of that was his own doing, but the Texans really need to build a strong offensive line this offseason.
Murphy is a fine player for them in this draft, and if they were to take him, great, but building a strong and dependable offensive line should be taken very seriously in the draft. If there is a stud available with the 23rd overall selection, the Texans need to make that their first-round choice.
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What are your thoughts on selecting a cornerback in the first round? Who would you select?