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A thorough assessment of a team’s draft can’t truly be reached for another three years or so. That said, with tighter rosters and larger rookie contracts, a successful draft must yield at least some immediate help. With that in mind, here’s a look at how AFC South teams fared over the weekend—both from a big-picture NFL standpoint as well as a fantasy perspective—taking into account how key needs were (or weren’t) addressed and the impact potential of the players acquired.
Houston Texans
The Texans didn’t partake in any of the trading up or trading down, making one (and only one) pick in each round save a bonus selection acquired in the offseason for Sage Rosenfels. Their first two selections addressed a need at OLB with Brian Cushing and Connor Barwin; the former fleshes out an underrated linebacking crew, while the latter is a developing hybrid pass rusher that will allow the Texans some flexibility with their scheme. C Antoine Caldwell was a value in the third round, and of the next five picks three were defensive backs (CBs Glover Quin and Brice McCain and S Troy Nolan) and two were tight ends (Anthony Hill and the versatile James Casey). Evidently years of early picks devoted to the defensive line have made the Texans gun-shy, as they ignored the position until signing Josh Leonard as an undrafted free agent.
Fantasy nugget: Look for Casey, who played seven different positions—including quarterback—at Rice, to be used in Gary Kubiak’s version of the Wildcat as well as as a pass-catcher and special teams contributor. The Texans failed to add a complementary back to Steve Slaton via the draft, which means they’re either trusting Chris Brown and Ryan Moats, think undrafted free agents Arian Foster and/or Jeremiah Johnson are real finds… or are willing to give Slaton the bulk of the workload.
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