Houston Texans Free Agency: Is Ronald Darby the answer at cornerback?
The Houston Texans need improvement at cornerback. Could free agency be the way to go to fix it?
The Houston Texans have a need at cornerback with Kareem Jackson, Kayvon Webster and Shareece Wright all being free agents. The cornerback roster consists of Johnathan Joseph, Johnson Bademosi, Kevin Johnson, Aaron Colvin, Jermaine Kelly and Deante Burton.
Some of those names are known and some not so much, but Houston does need to do something to add to the cornerback roster, and that player could be free agent cornerback Ronald Darby, who is a former second round pick in 2015. Darby has played in four NFL seasons with his first two with the Buffalo Bills and the past two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles.
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In his four seasons in the NFL, Darby has had the following grades via Pro Football Focus: 76.6 (2015), 68.3 (2016), 78.3 (2017) and 70.6 (2018).
Michael Renner of Pro Football Focus had this to say about the free agent Darby in a recent article, where he had Darby ranked as the 10th best free agent for this offseason and the top cornerback free agent:
"The high level is still there though, as we saw in the Eagles’ Super Bowl run. That year he allowed a catch rate of only 53.7 percent and a passer rating of 72.3."
The issue for Darby is he did tear his ACL this past November, so he probably wouldn’t be available for training camp and maybe in the early stages of the season, so there is that caution to consider as well.
When the 25-year old Darby was healthy in 2018, he had 43 tackles and one interception for the Eagles. Darby tore his ACL in Week 10 against the Dallas Cowboys, while his lone interception came in Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Also for all of last season in the 10 games played, Darby finished with 12 passes defensed. For his career, Darby has 54 passes defensed and six interceptions.
Compare Darby to Jackson — who played in all 16 regular season games for the Texans — and Jackson had two interceptions, two forced fumbles and 17 passes defensed.
Darby isn’t the answer for the early stages of the 2019 season as he won’t be ready to play due to his ACL recovery. If he’s healthy, Darby could make the Texans defensive backfield very dangerous, especially if the Texans can re-sign Tyrann Mathieu at safety to play with fellow safety Justin Reid too.
Houston needs a change in their defensive backfield, and if they can add another player while being patient with Darby’s recovery, the improvement many fans of the Texans want for the secondary next season could happen in a big way. Now the question is should the Texans do all they can to re-sign the 31-year old Jackson or go after a free agent like Darby? Which would you choose and why?
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