Should the team bring back Tyrann Mathieu or consider available free agents?
Texans about to do the Safety Dance
Mar 5, 2019, 7:16 am
Does the Honey Badger return? Bob Levey/Getty Images
Going into last season the Texans had several questions about their secondary and who would fill what roles for Romeo Crennel's defense? By the end of the campaign, the team had a firm grasp of who would be there for the long haul as rookie Justin Reid established himself as a bonified starter, big hitter and above average coverage safety. The first round talent was a steal in the thirrd round and made new General Manager Brian Gaine look like a genius as he played in all 16 games, starting 12 and intercepting three passes.
Playing along Tyrann Mathieu the duo was athletic, active and hard hitting. The "Honey Badger" proved to be another bargain in his first year with the team as he signed for one year and $7 million dollars and then proceeded to take on a leadership role both on the field and in the locker room as he had 70 solo tackles to equal Reid's number for the season and added two picks.
With the revolving door of cornerbacks the team was forced to go through, the stability on the back end of the unit proved to be extremely valuable and helpful as it allowed Crennel the ability to be flexible and move players around, like Kareem Jackson who alternated between the two positions throughout the year.
That was last year, with Mathieu a free agent and looking for a bigger, long term deal, does the team commit to him or explore the free agent market and try to once again catch lightning in a bottle at the safety position? There are options out there both young and old and it will make Gaine's job that much tougher as he attempts to find a balance between the price and the player in finding the best fit for this team going forward.
If the Texans elect to move on from Mathieu and look for a more "Gaine-like" big bodied, versatile, athlete that can excel in coverage as well as at the line of scrimmage and in the open field, there may be a perfect fit in Landon Collins. Collins has quickly emerged as one of the best young safeties in the league, but the Giants don't want to franchise him and thus, he looks to be headed out on the open market to test the waters and see if he can find a long term home with a team that has the ability to make the playoffs while maximizing his talent and versatility. He has made the Pro Bowl the last three years and has grown and improved with each passing year of experience. Losing and a dysfunctional locker room seemed to take its toll on the player as he cleaned out his locker at the end of the year and sent the message that it was time to move on.
Pairing an experienced and accomplished player like Collins with the young and impressionable Reid could be a dynamic duo that could hold down the last line of defense for Houston for years to come. If he does indeed escape from New York look for Gaine to get in line with a long list of teams that would love to add Collins to their roster.
The other name I think the Texans should consider is veteran Earl Thomas. The former standout from the University of Texas has established himself as the hardest hitting safety in the game and a respected, hard-nosed, intelligent defender that has lead the legendary Seahawks "Legion of Boom" defense to a Super Bowl title and years of notoriety. After his season of turmoil that ended in injury and controversy in Seattle it was obvious a divorce was imminent and his initial thoughts had the Cowboys as his next destination.
Fortunately for Texans fans, the 'Boys have their hands full trying to sign their own big named free agents and therefore they might not have the financial flexibility to land a player of Thomas' caliber. That would leave the door wide open for Earl to stay in Texas and head to Houston where he would be a great fit with JJ Watt, Jadeveon Clowney and the crew while doing some on the job training with Reid. Thomas is a Rockets fan and frequently attends games in the offseason and he knows the city and the sporting community well. The Bayou city could be a great landing spot to mesh his talent and veteran leadership with the youthful exuberance of an up and coming young prodigy. I for one would love to see Earl hold down the fort for Bill O'Brien's defense and take his talents to H-town. Obviously, the choice is not mine but I would like to think that Thomas, Mathieu, and Collins are three very solid options and Houston would be happy to have any one of them.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
They’ll be watching in Canada, not just because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, though the NBA’s scoring champion and MVP favorite who plays for Oklahoma City surely helps lure in fans who are north of the border.
They’ll be watching from Serbia and Greece, the homelands of Denver star Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Alperen Sengun will have them watching Houston games in the middle of the night in Turkey, too. Slovenian fans will be watching Luka Doncic and the Lakers play their playoff opener at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Los Angeles. Fans in Cameroon will be tuned in to see Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. Defending champion Boston features, among others, Kristaps Porzingis of Latvia and Al Horford of the Dominican Republic.
Once again, the NBA playoffs are setting up to be a showcase for international stars.
In a season where the five statistical champions were from five different countries, an NBA first — Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, rebounding champion Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento is from Lithuania, blocked shots champion Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio is from France, steals champion Dyson Daniels of Atlanta is from Australia, and assists champion Trae Young of the Hawks is from the U.S. — the postseason will have plenty of international feel as well. Gilgeous-Alexander is in, while Sabonis and Daniels (along with Young, obviously) could join him if their teams get through the play-in tournament.
“We have a tremendous number of international players in this league,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this season. “It’s roughly 30% of our players representing, at least on opening day, 43 different countries, so there’s much more of a global sense around our teams.”
By the end of the season, it wound up being 44 different countries — at least in terms of countries where players who scored in the NBA this season were born. For the first time in NBA history, players from one country other than the U.S. combined to score more than 15,000 points; Canadian players scored 15,588 this season, led by Gilgeous-Alexander, the first scoring champion from that country.
Gilgeous-Alexander is favored to be MVP this season. It'll be either him or Jokic, which means it'll be a seventh consecutive year with an international MVP for the NBA. Antetokounmpo won twice, then Jokic won three of the next four, with Cameroon-born Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers winning two seasons ago.
“Shai is in the category of you do not stop him,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game between the Raptors and Thunder this season.
In other words, he's like a lot of other international guys now. Nobody truly stops Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic either.
And this season brought another international first: Doncic finished atop the NBA's most popular jersey list, meaning NBAStore.com sold more of his jerseys than they did anyone else's. Sure, that was bolstered by Doncic changing jerseys midseason when he was traded by Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it still is significant.
The Slovenian star is the first international player to finish atop the most popular jerseys list — and the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to hold that spot in more than a decade, since soon-to-be-enshrined Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony did it when he was with New York in 2012-13.
“We’re so small, we have 2 million people. But really, our sport is amazing,” fellow Slovene Ajsa Sivka said when she was drafted by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night and asked about Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. “No matter what sport, we have at least someone that’s great in it. I’m just really proud to be Slovenian.”
All this comes at a time where the NBA is more serious than perhaps ever before about growing its international footprint. Last month, FIBA — the sport's international governing body — and the NBA announced a plan to partner on a new European basketball league that has been taking shape for many years. The initial target calls for a 16-team league and it potentially could involve many of the biggest franchise names in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.
It was a season where four players topped 2,000 points in the NBA and three of them were international with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. Globally, time spent watching NBA League Pass was up 6% over last season. More people watched NBA games in France this season than ever before, even with Wembanyama missing the final two months. NBA-related social media views in Canada this season set records, and league metrics show more fans than ever were watching in the Asia-Pacific region — already a basketball hotbed — as well.
FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers — which are clearly being fueled by the continued international growth — suggest the game is very strong right now.
“Looking around the world, and of course here in North America," Zagklis said, "the NBA is most popular and more commercially successful than ever.”