The Houston Texans have had their fair share of undrafted free agent success stories. In the past two seasons, the club produced contributors in 2018’s receiver Vyncint Smith and 2017’s linebacker Dylan Cole.
Part of the success Houston has had with undrafted free agents has been coach Bill O’Brien’s carrot for his 20 undrafted players during rookie minicamp.
“I talked to these guys [Thursday] night,” O’Brien said Friday. “If you look at the 65 guys that are here right now before we add these guys on Monday, 28 of those guys are undrafted. Think about that. Twenty-eight guys out of the 65 guys that are here right now were not drafted in their career.
“Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were undrafted Texans, but undrafted somewhere, some of them from the Texans. I think there were between 15 to 18 guys over the last couple of years on our 53 that were undrafted.”
For an undrafted rookie, according to O’Brien, making the 90-man roster is an endorsement from a club as to their football talent. After that, it is up to the individual player as to how they advance their burgeoning career.
“It’s not how you got here, it’s what you do when you enter the building from that point forward,” said O’Brien. “How do you produce on the field? How do you pay attention to meetings? How do you improve on a daily basis? It’s all about improvement. We’ve had plenty of guys over the years that were not drafted that made our football team and made big plays for us.”
The Texans could add a few undrafted free agents to the 53-man roster by Week 1 in September. Prime positions where an undrafted free agent could contribute are running back and outside linebacker.
