5 free agents who won’t be back with Houston Texans in 2019
2. Christian Covington, DT
It isn’t that I don’t want the Houston Texans to bring back defensive end Christian Covington, but I just believe more than a handful of teams will be interested in the unrestricted free agent this offseason.
The Texans could afford him, but the question is will they have to overpay for the 25-year-old who could still have untapped potential that we haven’t witnessed quite yet? Would Covington get a higher offer from elsewhere to work in a defensive depth chart for another team?
Covington is coming off a season where he had eight solo tackles and 3.5 sacks. For the season, he had a total of 15 tackles, and in his career for the Texans, Covington has 65 total tackles (39 solo) with 7.5 sacks and one forced fumble.
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Being that he’s a former sixth-round pick, Covington has played up to his draft value, but with the Texans they might decide to look to this year’s draft to add to their defensive line. Covington could be the odd man out as a rookie would be the cheaper route in terms of a contract, rather than dealing with free agency.
Covington is a solid player to have on the depth chart, but if the Texans decide to look elsewhere and let Covington go to another NFL franchise I wouldn’t be super surprised, although I’d like to see what more he’s able to offer for the team for a couple more seasons, being that he is still only 25 years old.