The Houston Texans need to upgrade their offensive line. However, free agency may not be the best avenue to pursue this objective.
Granted, the club has $77.96 million in salary cap space for 2019. Even though they have to make hard decisions regarding edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney and also bringing back safety Tyrann Mathieu, the club will still have enough in the war chest to address other positions of need.
The club shouldn’t count offensive line as one of their free agent needs.
Houston currently signed free agent guards Senio Kelemete and Zach Fulton in the 2018 offseason as stopgap measures to fix the offensive line. They also brought back Seantrel Henderson, another free agent signee from the 2018 offseason, to help out at tackle.
If the Texans were to bring in a free agent guard, who would they be replacing? Keep in mind the club also has Greg Mancz to help out at interior line spots. Also, if the club were to then draft an interior lineman, the room gets crowded and considerations of position flex suddenly became paramount to 53-man roster construction and not who can just be a good guard.
If Houston were to sign another free agent tackle, who would they be taking reps from? The club believes that 2018 third-round pick Martinas Rankin can be a starter for them, and a free agent tackle would be taking his reps. Julién Davenport will be entering his third season, a make or break season, and he also needs his reps. Even if the club doesn’t think Davenport is the answer, signing a free agent tackle ahead of the draft will also create a crowded room and steal reps from that top-100 pick.
There is no question the Texans have problems along the offensive line, and 2019 is an optimistic offseason because of the amount of draft resources and cap space available. However, using their cap space to address the offensive line in free agency would not be a prudent move.
