Houston Texans 7-Round Mock Draft: Life after the DeAndre Hopkins trade

The Houston Texans need a hard-hitting, no-nonsense kind player on their defense, and that player could be Xavier McKinney, a safety from the University of Alabama.

The Texans currently have Tashaun Gipson at strong safety and Justin Reid at free safety as the two starters, but behind them on the depth chart there needs — and must be an improvement — with the other strong safeties being A.J. Moore and Shalom Luani, and at free safety there is Jonathan Owens.

McKinney is that player who will add to the Texans defense with some hard-hitting power and still be able to learn on the go with the aforementioned Gipson and Reid on the defense as well. The Texans would also have a player in McKinney who at 6-0, 201 pounds ran a 4.63 40-yard dash, had 19 reps at the bench press and had a vertical jump of 36 inches at the NFL Combine. Lance Zierlein of NFL.com listed McKinney’s strengths as the following:

"“Known for high football IQ and field toughness … Has instant burst to close and strikes with intent … Versatility to match up with every personnel grouping.”"

Those are just three of the many strengths listed by the NFL Draft analyst Zierlein, and to be honest, if McKinney would fall to the 40th overall pick, it would be a steal to add to the Texans’ secondary and a decision that needed to be made to improve the overall depth and strength of the secondary.