NFL Draft: Grading the Houston Texans five picks for 2020

Round 5: Pick #171: Isaiah Coulter (WR)

Despite the overzealous effort by the Houston Texans to stuff the wide receivers room full of talent to try to replace the larger-than-life presence of DeAndre Hopkins, there still remain questions on how effective Brandin Cooks, Randall Cobb, Kenny Stills and Keke Coutee will be as a collective unit.

Had they not made the deal for Cooks, drafting a wide receiver would’ve been a top priority but with O’Brien stressing the need for the veterans to get more play this season, he decided to go that route without going high on a receiver.

Nonetheless, there’s still talent to be had in the draft and the presence of Rhode Island’s Isaiah Coulter was too good to pass up on.

A talented and wondrous prospect with a raw but rare skill set, it’s clearly obvious he’s not ready yet to bang with the pros but the Houston Texans think that will be.

Coulter should be seen as a reclamation project, a hypothesis that could be addressed and understood over the next few seasons.

Yes, he went to a small school but his man is thirsty to make plays and that’s exactly what the wider receiver’s room needs so that alone gives him enough candidacy to be drafted.

Although participating in the smaller Colonial Athletic Association football conference, he still worthy of looking under the hood with his energetic and athletic frame.  He netted seven career games netting 100+ yards each and that’s not easy to do no matter what collegiate league that you’re in.

Coulter is the fastest prospect picked by the Houston Texans this draft and that’s what’s going to help see him through.  He will have a bit of a learning curve as he learns a more expanded route tree that what he had to deal with at Rhode Island so it’s up to him in terms of how quickly he can get up to speed.  Let’s hope he flattens that learning curve.

He’s intriguing and I think the sky is the limit for his guy to exceed whatever expectations are in front of him and he’ll likely get most of his early work on special teams when he does see the field.

Grade:  C

Final verdict

The Houston Texans fulfilled needs all across the board and were able to address the most pressing on the defensive line.  Although they’re not expected to make an impact immediately because of the nature of the times we’re living in, I think they will once things get back to normal, hopefully, sooner than later.

I wish they would’ve addressed the safety position this draft but they’re obviously confident that Tashaun Gipson, Justin Reid and Mike Adams are going to be able to handle their jobs well in that area of expertise for the upcoming season.

I’d fully expect them to address it next season but we’ll certainly have to see about that.

But all in all, O’Brien did a solid job of managing this draft and he was aggressive with his thirst to make deals for the guys that he wanted.  You can’t fault the guy for wanting to do that.

We’ll have to evaluate this class moving forward but I think we’re going to see some impactful results from these guys over the years.

Let’s go Houston Texans!

Final Grade: B

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