Dre Kirkpatrick is worth adding at cornerback for Texans

What would be some good Houston Texans news is if they added to their cornerback depth in 2020, and a player who could do that is Dre Kirkpatrick.

Sure, the Houston Texans re-signed Vernon Hargreaves III and Bradley Roby this offseason to keep them in their secondary, but the Texans need to add an additional cornerback to the depth chart, and that player is the recently released Dre Kirkpatrick, formerly of the Cincinnati Bengals.

It is a readily known fact that Dre Kirkpatrick isn’t the greatest tackler in any secondary, but what there is to like about him is the skill-set he brings to the football field which includes his ability to cover a defender.

That type of ability is something much needed by the Texans, especially as they will be battling the likes of the Baltimore Ravens, and the Kansas City Chiefs if they ever want to have dreams of playing in a Super Bowl game.

Kirkpatrick played in six games last season as he hyper-extended his knee in Week 6 against the Ravens in 2019, so a one-year deal with incentives doesn’t seem like a bad offer if the Texans were to make one.

Though Dre Kirkpatrick might not be the very best cornerback around, he could easily see the field on any roster. If there is a player who needs to “prove himself” after being released on Tuesday by the Bengals, it is Kirkpatrick.

Now the Texans connection in all of this is that there is a team in the league that had success with a “prove it” type of one-year contract, and that team is the Texans. Think about it for a second. Remember the one season Tyrann Mathieu played for the Texans? The cornerback did well in his one season with the franchise, and maybe Kirkpatrick can bounce back in a big way with the Texans too.

This will be the ninth NFL season for Kirkpatrick, and he’s played his entire career with the Bengals in the AFC, so he already knows some common opponents the Texans will be facing. Kirkpatrick is still only 30 years old, and at 6’2, 190 pounds he has a nice frame to defend opposing wide receivers. It would be intriguing to see him play alongside Gareon Conley, Lonnie Johnson Jr. or even Roby and Hargreaves, meaning the competition at cornerback would be outstanding.

Last season in his six games, Kirkpatrick had four passes defensed and even gained a sack, which was the third of his career. In ’18, Kirkpatrick played in 13 games where he had nine passes defensed, and from 2015-17 his passes defensed numbers included: 16, 10 and 14. To be honest, there seems to be a lot left in the tank for Kirkpatrick in 2020.

The Texans need to do whatever they can to make the secondary the best it can be, and signing Kirkpatrick to compete with the rest of the cornerbacks currently on the roster of the Texans would not only give Dre Kirkpatrick a chance to shine, but really make the battle in the secondary that much better.