C
Houston Texans
The Texans landed square in the muddy middle: C.
by Powerful ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 3 steals
· 3 reaches
Call it a hunch or call it a gamble, but the Texans spent slot 164 on De'Corian Clark, a name most had 31 spots down the list. It lands right in the middle: a C, no more, no less.
The interior defensive lineman hole is the one line item this class does not answer. Tagovailoa falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch.
It nets out as a middle-of-the-pack haul that neither helps nor hurts much.
Pick-by-Pick
Dallas Turner is a better player than the 23rd overall pick suggests; smart patience, rewarded. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
In Round 1, Pick 24 they get a quarterback's worst nightmare at a price that makes it sweeter. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
In the Round 1 slot they get a lockdown presence outside. More want than need.
A reach for Payton Wilson in slot 59; a little patience would have been rewarded. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Marist Liufau in pick 85 is fair value, right on his grade. It fills a real need, too.
Will Shipley at the 123rd pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Malik Mustapha at Round 4, Pick 27 is a conviction pick that outran the value. Depth more than a fix, but depth they can use.
A big swing on De'Corian Clark at slot 164, well ahead of any board in the building. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
The board fumbled Taulia Tagovailoa all the way to pick 239, and they scooped it up. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
A clean, defensible pick in the 248th overall pick with a little surplus value in Aaron Frost. A need, and now a little less of one.