A.J. Bouye, cornerback, Houston Texans
Despite bigger names such as Stephon Gilmore and Logan Ryan on the market, Bouye is by far the top corner available for teams in need of help here.
The former undrafted free agent out of Central Florida took a full-time starting role this past season and didn’t look back. Bouye tallied 62 tackles and 16 passes defended while finishing as one of the top-five cover guys in the entire NFL.
It’s going to be interesting to see the market play out for Bouye. There’s two train of thoughts here. First off, even as the best of what is a solid crop of free-agent corners, there’s not a whole lot of sample size. Bouye has started a total of 19 games in four NFL seasons. This seems to suggest that he might fall short of the elite-level corner money we’ve seen Josh Norman and Patrick Peterson ink recently.
On ther other hand, with NFL’s cap going up $10-plus million for the fourth consecutive season, there’s a completely different market out there. That could suggest unusually large contracts for lesser-known players. While Bouye fits this category, he’s also a Pro Bowl caliber performer. After all, he posted an absurd 90.9 grade according to Pro Football Focus metrics last season.
While there’s certain to be a couple handful of teams make a play for Bouye, our expectation is that he will return to the Texans. Houston knows very well that its defense has been the bread-and-butter of the team’s success over the past couple years. Simply put, the Texans can’t afford to lose their best cover guy.
That’s only magnified by the fact that his play-making ability will be doubled moving forward with J.J. Watt returning to full health. Just imagine quarterbacks having to rush the ball to Bouye’s side of the field with Watt, Jadeveon Clowney and Whitney Mercilus creating havoc in the offensive backfield.
Prediction: Houston Texans