Houston Texans must target A.J. Bouye heavily in free agency

The Houston Texans should pursue A.J. Bouye heavily in free agency for a second tour of duty. His familiarity with the system makes him a great choice.

Houston Texans’ fans — it’s time we’ve all been waiting for, the free agency period, which will start next month and I’m sure most of us are chomping at the bit, wondering what the Houston Texans plan to do to keep this team competitive this offseason.

Back-to-back double-digit win seasons is definitely something to note for this team — something that hasn’t been done since 2011-12 for the first time in franchise history — and they certainly can build off of that, especially with Deshaun Watson under center.

There are going be all kinds of avenues such as free agency as well as the draft and the undrafted free agents that will be able to help this team reach new heights. However, as of late, with Bill O’Brien at the helm, the team has been less apt to rely on the UDFAs, something that former general manager Rick Smith was damn good at but had a lot of misses in the later rounds of the actual draft.

Speaking of undrafted, there’s one candidate that just might find himself back on the market and the Houston Texans could certainly use his services.

Yes, I’m talking about A.J. Bouye and it’s expected that the Jacksonville Jaguars will release him, to where he signed a five-year, $67.5 million deal just three seasons ago. He had two years left on his pact, paying him on average of $13 million per season.

Bouye didn’t quite look right in their defensive schemes and at times, looked lost, far from the guy the Houston Texans molded into a damn good cornerback before being whisked away in free agency. Plus, they need liquidity on their balance sheet and Bouye is one of many candidates they’ll have to let go to get lean once again. If he wasn’t so expensive, there would likely be no talk of this notion.

Now that times have changed, he’s available again and he’s expected to have a lot of suitors for his services once he’s officially released.

I’m sure the Houston Texans wanted to have him back but not at the price that he had earned with

More from House of Houston

the Jags over the past three seasons. His $13M per season salary could easily be covered by the Houston Texans, who are expected to have a ton of cap space at about $64M or so and would immediately right this damaged ship once again.

We know Bouye and what he can provide for this team and I’d expect him to pick up right where he left off although he’s edging ever closer to 30, with him now being 28-years-old.

It remains to be seen if Bouye wants to even consider returning because the Houston Texans didn’t feel he was worth the money he has earned since he has left the team. But likely, the feelings are mutual and there’s an understanding that the NFL is a business first and foremost and there are no hard feelings.

I’d love to have him back and it would be like old times once again which could make things quite exciting in a potential second-tour of duty.

Let’s keep our eye out for this…

Next. Texans: Let the courting of Chris Harris Jr. begin. dark

Bouye accumulated 65 tackles — 50 solos — along with one interception, eight passes defensed and one tackle-for-loss through all of his 14 starts last season.

Home/Houston Texans