Houston Texans: How the team is approaching Gareon Conley’s contract

The Houston Texans have already decided to take a stance on Gareon Conley’s contract which certainly has put a referendum on the budding corner’s season.

The Houston Texans are in the midst of the offseason — the first one with Bill O’Brien officially as the team’s general manager — but little moves have been made in regard to setting the table for the 2020 season.

We all know that O’Brien has been calling the shots for quite some time but the Houston Texans decided to give him the title officially recently, ensuring that all decisions in regard to the football operations of the franchise will certainly go through him.

He’ll have trusted confidant Jack Easterby, executive vice president of football operations to lean off of in case he needs any additional counsel on the moves that he could make throughout the course of the season and moving forward.

All in all, the decision to trade away Jadeveon Clowney in exchange for Jacob Martin, Barkevious Mingo and Gareon Conley turned out to not be as bad as we thought but it’s still unforgivable considering the impact Clowney would’ve made on the field while J.J. Watt was nursing his pectoral injury this past season.

O’Brien also made shrewd moves to swap Martinas Rankin for Carlos Hyde, who had his first career 1,000+ rushing yards season, along with trading for left tackle Laremy Tunsil and wideout Kenny Stills, who were both lifesavers for the offense this season.

But one of the peculiar decisions that has been made by O’Brien is that he’s not committing upfront to pick up Conley’s fifth-year option, scheduled to kick-in in 2021.

Here’s what he said on that front:

"“Conley has been good for us,” O’Brien said, per the Houston Chronicle’s Aaron Wilson. “I probably wouldn’t be able to answer that specific question, but we like Gareon Conley, if that answers your question. We like what he brings to the table.”"

Conley, 24, is a bright yet budding cornerback in this league that had close to solid returns in short

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tenure with the Houston Texans after being acquired just before the deadline back this fall.

There were some bright moments with Conley but then there are times where he’d struggle with stiffer competition.  But overall, the Houston Texans were better off with him on board than they were without.

Nonetheless, O’Brien obviously wants to see more out of Conley before he’s prepared to either pick up his fifth-year option or offer him a contract extension.  That’s quite understandable but it’s worth having him around because I do see immense potential out of this guy and I’m certainly hoping for the best.

Conley will earn $1.9 million in base salary this season before the Houston Texans will have an important decision to make on him so he’s got to step up and prove his worth to this team because obviously there is skepticism from Lord O’Brien, ruler of the kingdom of the Houston Texans.

Conley accumulated 27 tackles — 20 solos — along with 11 passes defensed through eight games — six starts — this past season with the team.