Houston Texans: The mystique of UDFA wide receiver Jester Weah

The Houston Texans are days away from partaking in organized team activities (OTAs) and one of the camp invitees involves wide receiver Jester Weah out of Pittsburgh. He has an interesting story line as well as blood line so let’s take a look further.

The Houston Texans signed 13 undrafted free agents (UDFAs) within the past week and they all certainly bring something special to the table or otherwise they wouldn’t be here. But they’re more than a number or a simple name on a roster transaction sheet. They’re people and just like many of us, their life is loaded with anecdotes to tell.

Last week, I talked about Jaryd Jones-Smith and his road back to playing football again after suffering a devastating injury that certainly jeopardized his career. He’s luckily back out on the turf once again and the Houston Texans have given him an opportunity to make his comeback. He’s an offensive tackle so his services will definitely be sought after to help with the depth of line. Who knows? If he has a great camp, the Houston Texans may have no choice put to insert him into the starting lineup.

He’ll be likely be competing with Julie’n Davenport for a spot and even to a lesser extent, Seantrel Henderson which is dependent on his health going into camp as well as the regular season.

K.J. Malone, another offensive tackle who is NBA legend Karl Malone’s son, has surprisingly bowed out of football after three days of practice with the Houston Texans so that story line can no longer be monitored.

But let’s get to Jester Weah. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound wide out from Pittsburgh is as exciting as it gets. This guy is certainly a nice project with the potential to make this roster if he just blows away the onlookers who are evaluating his talent. He’s certainly that kind of guy you stash away with one’s hopes pinned on being a productive pro’s pro in the near future.

He’s a speedy receiver as well — running a 4.43 40-yard dash in the NFL Combine — and has 31 1/8-inch arm length and 9 5/8-inch hands. That’s certainly enough to get the job done with this team.

According to Pro Football Focus, Jester graded out at a pedestrian 71.3 for this past season, one that wasn’t as good as his previous one. He’s a tremendous deep ball threat, catching 47.4 percent of like passes thrown at him in 2016 but his numbers were nearly cut in half for last season, catching only 25.6 percent of deep ball passes thrown at him.

He has terrific hands, dropping only 12 balls out of 88 catchable targets in 2017. But perhaps is

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most glaring weakness is his ability to catch balls when contested, he only caught seven out of 25 attempts for 28 percent catch rate.

This is interesting to hear considering this is a guy that can accelerate with ease and can get the separation that’s needed between defenders. Hopefully John Perry and Wes Welker can work to alleviate those concerns when trying to catch passes in traffic.

He does generate plenty of missed tackles with his speed and he’s decent with his yards per route production. He generated 1.91 yards per route run which is good for 67th among eligible-graded receivers.

I’ve spilled enough guts on Jester’s stats, abilities and measurements so what makes him stand out?

Did I mention that his uncle, George Weah, is highly-regarded as one of the greatest soccer players in world history? Although he was born in Minneapolis and reared in Madison, Wis., he has deeply cemented roots in Liberia to which where his uncle was elected president of the country back last year after pursuing an affinity of politics after finishing up his soccer career.

Sports has precedence throughout his family with his cousin Timothy Weah, who plays for the U.S. Men’s soccer national team and George Weah Jr., who currently is a midfielder with A.C. Milan.

There’s no question if this guy overachieves, he may find himself on the 53-man roster going into the season but his competition will be stiff going up against 4th-rounder Keke Coutee, UDFA Vyncint Smith and to a lesser extent, Tyler Ervin and Braxton Miller. We’ll certainly have to see about that.

Next: Top undrafted players in Texans' history

Weah caught 77 balls for 1,566 yards with 14 touchdowns with a 52.8 catch percentage through three seasons with the Panthers.

Jester — I wish nothing but the best of luck to you!

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