Houston Texans sign former Steelers, Eagles cornerback

Well, that didn’t take long for the Houston Texans to act upon Lovie Smith’s words.

Earlier this week, Lovie Smith went on record saying that the Houston Texans could not play the style of football he wants with the cornerback group looking the way that it currently is.

Nick Caserio said the equivalent “alright, bet” and went out and signed former Kansas City Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers, and  Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Steven Nelson. Nelson entered the league with the Chiefs back in 2015 as a third-round pick out of Oregon State.

Nelson is coming off his latest stint with the Eagles last season, where he had one interception and 50 combined tackles. Nelson allowed 48 of 72 passes to be completed when targeted in 2021.

According to Pro Football Reference’s advanced stats, that led to a 66.7 percent completion percentage and a 12-yard average per catch.

Steven Nelson is a nice pickup for the Houston Texans, but the cornerback group still needs work.

Nelson’s best year came in 2019 in Pittsburgh, where he allowed only half the passes to be completed when targeted. But still, Nelson is a seven-year veteran who adds depth to the team. We’ll see what Nelson can do to help the team and his role in Lovie Smith’s system.

Houston still needs to draft a cornerback pretty early in the draft to help this position on their roster start to trend in the right direction. Rumors are that Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner could be the apple of Caserio’s eye.

Others have advocated that Derek Stingley Jr. should be the one whose name gets called somewhere in the first round. Those who advocate for Stingley aren’t bothered by his injury history.

With just over two weeks to go until the draft, many things could happen in that time. We’ll see if Houston picks one of those two mentioned above to solidify the cornerback room.