Houston Texans: The meaning of the Keion Crossen trade to the team

The Houston Texans were able to land second-year cornerback Keion Crossen in exchange for a 6th-round pick. What does he bring to the table? Let’s look.

Houston Texans fans — the team has completed what was a whirlwind of a day of transactions to get the roster down to 53 men for the 2019 season.  They were able to complete that task successfully but whether the guys that have been picked to move forward to help the team win games is certainly up for debate.

The Houston Texans were involved in more trades than I could remember yesterday.  Usually, this team typically executes just one — possibly two — trades in the offseason.  They completed four yesterday which goes to show how serious this team is trying to improve to be not only the best in the AFC South but one of the best in the NFL.

The day started off with Jadeveon Clowney being traded to the Seattle Seahawks for a bag of chips and small soda with a little fizz — otherwise known as a third-round pick and edge rushers Barkevious Mingo and Jacob Martin — which caused Texans Nation to go into a tizzy of an uproar.  This is truly is the worst trade in franchise history and it’s far from being balanced on both ends.

But it has happened and now we’ll have to deal with it.

The Houston Texans also traded 2018 third-rounder Martinas Rankin to the Kansas City Chiefs for running back Carlos Hyde.  Both were about to be cut anyway so it’s an even swap that fulfills needs for both teams.

Then it was the blockbuster trade that had us all excited yet having a bittersweet feeling that the team gave up so much in the Clowney trade.

The Houston Texans traded two first-round picks (2020-21), a 2021 second-rounder as well as Julie’n Davenport and Johnson Bademosi to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for talented offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil as well as wide receiver Kenny Stills along with a 2020 4th rounder and 2021 6th-rounder.

The picks the Houston Texans received were a new development to the story that originally only had them acquiring Tunsil and Stills.  That’s a fair deal in every regard and they were able to address needs offensively and they’ve got stud left tackle for at least next decade or so.

But there’s one more trade.

In more of a minor transaction, the Houston Texans traded a 2020 6th-round pick to the New England Patriots to acquire cornerback Keion Crossen, a 2018 7th-round pick out of Western Carolina.

Just based off of what I’ve seen so far, it’s best to categorize Crossen as a guy to not only help with depth but more of a reclamation project to get him better while working in this system.

He’s a corner that does have potential but I think he still has a long way to go in terms of being a regular contributor for this team.

Pro Football Focus gave him a 46.1 overall, 60.8 run, 37.7 tackle and 44.7 coverage grade for last

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season through 53 snaps.  Obviously with the those numbers, he’s still got a lot of work to do in terms of improvement but it’s good to know he can be used, when appropriate in stopping the run when things get out of hand from the linebackers.

Out of the snaps he took, he had two missed tackles and quarterbacks had a 118.8 rating when throwing to him so that’s hardly something to write about as far as his ability.

Crossen’s 52.2 defensive grade ranks him 31st out 42 qualifying cornerbacks in his draft class.

His six tackles per miss average that he had in 2018 also needs to be shored up because you’d want to see that at a number higher.

He also has the ability to cover in the slot as well, 5.4 percent of his snaps came from slot coverage while just 4.7 came from traditional coverage.

Unless the Houston Texans know something we don’t, it’s just hard to fathom seeing this guy getting time early and honestly the Pats may have cut him from their roster anyway.  Who knows?  They gave up a sixth-rounder but did get one back in the Tunsil trade so things may have evened out just in case this trade goes sour.

Anyway, let’s start thinking about next week’s opener on the road in the NOLA against the Saints!

Crossen had 14 tackles — all solos — through 11 games in 2018.

For more grades, advanced statistics and more at Pro Football Focus, subscribe to PFF’s EDGE and ELITE subscriptions at ProFootballFocus.com.