NFL Draft: Grading the Houston Texans five picks for 2020
Round 4: Pick #141: John Reid (CB)
The secondary was of concern in terms of depth going into the season but they’ve made some moves to address that with signing Bradley Roby to a three-year, $36 million deal and with Lonnie Johnson more than likely getting a promotion to start on the opposite end of Roby if he continues to blossom.
Gareon Conley is also in the mix and he’s going to be the presumptive starter for now but the rest of the cornerback’s room contains a bunch of question marks, starting with Phillip Gaines.
The Houston Texans felt they could add to that depth by bringing in another cornerback to develop and they feel it could be Penn State’s John Reid.
Reid has the model personality of everything you’d want out of a student-athlete and for an NFL coach. He has graduated from college on-time, he’s intelligent, is a good citizen and has that desire to work hard to be the best.
However, it’s his 5-foot-10, 187-pound frame that has me concerned as far as to how he’ll stack up the NFL competition. He’s physically-gifted in every sense of the word, he’s agile and fast but can he keep up with the elite pass-catchers in this league? He can run the 40-yard dash in 4.49 seconds so that’s a start.
Must Read. Texans: 2020 Undrafted Free Agent (UDFA) list. light
The Houston Texans want to find out about that and they feel they can develop him into something special.
Reid has been battling knee injuries through his career dating back to high school but he came on strong in his 2019 campaign so his long-term health outlook has to be questioned. He did make 24 starts in his last two seasons at the corner position with the Nittany Lions so the worst may be behind him.
The Houston Texans need a slot corner and haven’t had one committed full-time since the likes of Aaron Colvin, to which was an experiment that went horribly wrong. Reid could change the narrative on that and he’s got all of the traits to indicate that he will.
But Reid is a winner on and off the field and despite how his tenure with the Houston Texans will be, playing football is just one chapter of what will likely be a successful life for him. He graduated this past December with a degree in Data Sciences, a STEM-subject so there’s no question that he’ll put his degree to work long after his pro career is over.
This is the pick of the draft that I want to keep an eye on more than any of the others because of the potential that this guy wields. We’ll have to see what happens.