Houston Texans: Why the team should target Josh Kline in free agency

The Houston Texans will be undertaking free agency within the next few weeks when it starts March 14. There are a lot of repairs the club needs to make, particularly on the offensive line and here’s why I think Josh Kline would be a nice fit in Houston. Take a look.

The Houston Texans have a smorgasbord of changes they need to make in order to make this roster viable for next season and there’s a strong possibility that at least a third of last year’s team will turn over, either because of injuries or just too much of underwhelming play by any given unit.

There’s only so much that you can blame on injuries before it comes down to the players themselves or the those that in the position of coaching them. Bill O’Brien has cleaned house and has revamped his coaching staff to meet his expectations of continuing to bring an institution of winning.

Romeo Crennel is back in the fold as defensive coordinator after the departure of Mike Vrabel to the Tennessee Titans and John Pagano is the new linebackers coach. In addition, Brad Seely has also been added as the new special teams coordinator ensuring that the most important coaching positions are anchored by seasoned vets in the league. It can certainly be said that the aforementioned years of experience combined go well up through the triples.

But with that being said and now the Houston Texans have a new general manager in Brian Gaine, whom should we target in the off season? The first priority is to provide some type of quasi-repair to the offensive line and there are some capable bodies out there that can get the job done.

In regard to help at guard, I think that free agent Josh Kline would be an excellent add to this offense. I’d like to have a guard that’s familiar with being a part of a fast-paced offense anchored by a mobile quarterback such as Marcus Mariota, the guy he has been protecting for the past couple of seasons. I could totally see him protecting Deshaun Watson on a regular basis. He also has experience protecting Tom Brady, arguably the best quarterback in this era having done so from his rookie season in 2013 to 2015 before the Titans picked him up.

The question would be if the Titans think he’s worth keeping around? I’d think so because at such a premium position, he’s going to get offers. The Houston Texans might as well be the ones to do it and he’s actually a more reasonable get. Andrew Norwell and Justin Pugh are going to be the top targets for free agency this off season so I say we go under the radar and make a solid offer to Kline to bring him into the fold.

He has long held the reputation for doing well for pass protection of the quarterback but not so

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much in terms of the run blocking, something the Titans struggled to do with DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry last season. But you know what? I’m willing to take that risk because he’s surely better than what he had on that offensive line in 2017.

According to Pro Football Focus, Josh Kline was ranked 22nd out of 77 eligible guards in 2017 with a close-to-solid 75.8 grade. He was graded 84.0 on the pass but just a mere 46.4 on the run. We can only hope that Watson isn’t in the situation where he has to run all of the time, thus keeping Kline show off his strongest suits in protecting the quarterback.

Could the Houston Texans have a shot at him? Absolutely but it remains to be seen how things will shakeout as we’ll likely know his status the week the legal tampering period begins. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

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Kline, 28, started all 16 games for the Titans this past season at right guard.

Go Texans.

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