Houston Texans: Three options to solve the left tackle conundrum

DJ Humphries, Arizona Cardinals

DJ Humphries hasn’t quite been the guy the Cardinals were imagining and hoping for when they selected him in the first round of the 2015 draft. He essentially took a redshirt year that season as he got healthy and attempted to acclimate to the NFL.

He then took over as the primary right tackle in 2016 though he played some left tackle. He was a pretty good run blocking tackle and was decent at pass blocking. Though, his performance wasn’t good enough for him to maintain his starting status for 2017. He was relegated to backup duty where he played 200+ snaps at LT. He was pretty good, enough to earn the starting job for the 2018 season and to have his fifth-year option picked up.

Humphries has been decent this season, not too good but way better than what the Houston Texans have seen at left tackle this year. Though, he hasn’t necessarily been good enough to for the Cardinals to want to keep him long term.

The Cardinals are one of two teams who are expected to have a fire sale this season. They’re supposedly open to trading away nearly everyone, including star corner Patrick Peterson. So, if that’s the case, there is no reason why they wouldn’t be open to listening to offers for Humphries.

If the Texans were to offer, say, a third or fourth round pick for Humphries the Cardinals may accept it. Humphries deal is fully guaranteed through the rest of the season but for a minuscule amount. He carries a $9 million price tag for next year but it’s not fully guaranteed until midway through the offseason so if it doesn’t work out, they could cut their losses and explore other options.