Houston Texans: Four unrestricted free agents the team must re-sign
Free Agent #2: Tyrann Mathieu
The Honey Badger Experiment has completed with the conclusion of the 2018 season so what’s the verdict? Although his production leveled-off toward the end of the season, I’ll be the judge, jury and executioner and rule that Tyrann Mathieu must be re-signed to the Houston Texans.
The secondary had a lot of problems this season in terms of maintaining their health plus emitting any sense of consistency with production but one thing’s for sure, Mathieu was out there for just about every minute of it.
One of the exciting yet surprising free agent signings of the 2018 off season, his one-year, $7 million deal turned out to be great value for what Mathieu was able to offer the Houston Texans.
He’s a vocal leader on and off the field, active in the community and he’s really turned a corner from the days of his checkered past at LSU. He’s matured as a human being and has grown from the mistakes that he made in life, which is something we can all relate to.
But in terms of his production out on the football field, Mathieu had 80 tackles — nine assisted — along with 30 run stops, two interceptions and four pass breakups.
The bad part was that out of the 70 times Mathieu was targeted deep, quarterbacks had a 112.4 rating which was the second-highest mark of his career.
PFF graded him at 75.1 overall, 83.9 run defense, 69.8 tackling, 67.1 pass rush and 70.6 in coverage through 1,114 snaps on the season. He ranked 13th among all safeties this past season with at least 895 snaps.
I wasn’t expecting him to set the world on fire when he signed but for him to shore up a position that has been wildly inconsistent with revolving door of players — remember when they brought Quintin Demps back? — that frustrated me to no end.
Mathieu will be terrific mentor for Justin Reid, who is certainly the future anchor to the secondary unit with Andre Hal being a nice complement.
The sad part is the last memory I have of 2018 on him is when he got ferociously beat by Dontrelle Inman for a 18-yard touchdown pass that he caught straight up the middle to put the Colts up for good in last week’s Wild Card game.
Let’s hope he has the opportunity to redeem himself from that play with Houston Texans next season.