The Houston Texans can officially place franchise tags on players if they wish.
With the massive amount of free agents that they have, the Houston Texans should do themselves a favor and not tag any players. It’s the old saying of “Just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should.”
Some would say the biggest player on that list is for Justin Reid to be tagged. The problem with that is the Texans burnt their relationship bridge to a crisp last season with the random benching of Reid hours before the game against the New York Jets.
It wasn’t like Reid got in legal trouble or did anything else wrong- it was a simple disagreement with the coaching staff. It was a weird situation that David Culley could have handled better, but the past is the past.
Houston Texans are not in danger of losing significant players with no tag use.
Nick Caserio brought in so many players on one-year deals, combined with the fact that these players combined for a 4-13 finish, there’s not much enthusiasm when you look at the players who are set to depart.
One could argue for Maliek Collins to get the tag, but will he be a fit in Lovie Smith’s defense now that he is also the head coach and has (seemingly) a bigger say in personnel matters? Nobody has a 100 percent certainty that Collins will be back as well.
2021 was a year of massive change, and 2022 will be no different. With Deshaun Watson’s legal decision delaying, it’s best to keep as much money accessible for the whole team instead of tying a bunch into one player.
March 16th is so close, yet so far away. We’ll see what Caserio and Smith can do in their first offseason together.