Who the Houston Texans draft will be directly tied to their free agency period

Sports Illustrated released a list of names the Houston Texans should keep an eye on at the NFL Combine. A wise idea, as you want to have an idea of who to draft come April, but the answer isn't a specific name, it's every name. You rarely have an idea who's going to be the most impressive at the combine heading in.

And this got us thinking about all the mock drafts you see out there. A great idea and one you'll see from us soon enough, and we got to thinking about how everyone is designing these mock drafts on who the Texans need today. Not who they'll need come April. There's every chance that by the time of the draft, the Texans don't need safeties, linebackers, corners, or offensive linemen.

They may need defensive tackles and punters. Who knows? We don't. No one does. This got us thinking that while mock drafts are fun, it's important to remember that the Texans and every other NFL team out there will have a different set of needs come the first day of the draft than they do right now. Free agency is a few weeks from starting and with some big names out there, it's very likely that a team takes a position of need off the board before the first week of free agency is done.

The draft will eventually arrive and we'll likely have a curious look on our face when the first few picks come in, as these mocks never go the way weentirely think they will. So many people are suggesting corners, but it's entirley possible the first pick made is a wide receiver or even a linebacker.

We have no idea if the Texans front office and coaching staff see the players the same we do. It's why the free agency period will tell us a lot about who the team intends to draft.