Houston Texans: Shareece Wright finding a niche with the team

Houston Texans cornerback Shareece Wright has been solid pickup for the team. What has he done as of late? Let’s take a look and find out what.

The Houston Texans have surged into their bye week by winning their 6th-straight in yet another game that was won off a technicality. The previous two wins over the Miami Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars were seized through and through but with the Denver Broncos placekicker Brandon McManus missing the game-winning field goal attempt last night put the Houston Texans in the territory of luck.

Regardless, I’ll take the win and the team can still continue to trudge through the AFC South muck being the leader of the pack, especially if the Dallas Cowboys triumph over the Tennessee Titans this Sunday, who will be quite fresh from their bye week.

Last night’s win over the Broncos was quite a fortunate one for the Houston Texans considering the key players that they had out for this game. Second-year linebacker Zach Cunningham was severely missed as there were many occasions where Benardrick McKinney was missing the tackles and Devontae Booker was able to get the necessary gains needed to move the Broncos’ offense down the field.

Johnathan Joseph and Aaron Colvin were also out as both are nursing ankle injuries. It’s hopeful that both will be back after the bye week and the majority of the secondary will be restored. They may not necessarily be full tilt as Colvin will likely have some rust but it’s certainly a terrific notion to admonish.

But let’s talk about a cornerback that has exceeded my expectations in terms of doing what he can to help this team win.

I’m referring to Shareece Wright.

Since being signed shortly after the Houston Texans Week 1 matchup against the New England Patriots, the rest has been history.

The former third-round pick out of USC in 2011 has bounced around quite a bit with stops with the San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders and now the Houston Texans in his 8th season.

The 31-year-old’s story is the same of any journeyman cornerback — he was good enough to make a team but a guy that you’d want to have on your team long-term.

That notion remains to be seen in regard to his future with Houston Texans but we can enjoy the fact that he’s been relatively solid since his signing.

For example, there was a terrific pass breakup in the first half yesterday that Wright committed over Courtland Sutton. That’s his third of the season and it’s definitely encouraging to hear.

Case Keenum was going deep to Sutton in the end zone and Wright stayed with the whole way

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and ferociously prevented Sutton from making the catch, which certainly would’ve knotted the game at seven apiece instead of the field goal that the Broncos had to settle for on that drive.

The outcome of that game would’ve been different if those extra points would’ve been accumulated.

In addition, there are situations where I wish that Wright would play closer to the ball when on assignment but he seems to always be there when the team needs to count on him the most.

In retrospect, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Wright is ranked 79th among the Top 200 cornerbacks in run defense with a 66.1 grade.

Although his tackling could use some work, I think he held his own against Booker and Phillip Lindsay when he got the call, those backs were only able to accumulate just 75 yards off 20 carries combined on the ground.

He’ll also have to work trying to net some interceptions as well as lower the 133.3 rating quarterbacks have when throwing to him. Up until the Broncos matchup, he had been giving 11.3 yards per target which is good enough for 101st.

Wright is certainly far from the long-term answer for our cornerback depth but I do think he’s found a niche with his team that keeps his value high enough to retain.

Let’s hope that it continues!

Wright has amassed 14 tackles for the 2018 season.

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