GAREON CONLEY TO THE HOUSTON TEXANS
Defensively, the Houston Texans have really struggled on the back end this year, with their secondary allowing the league’s most receiving yards (1,654), the most combined first downs and touchdowns (82) and the league’s seventh-highest passer rating (112.1), all en route to a combined coverage grade of 35.9 — the worst mark among the NFL’s 32 secondary groups. Thus far, not a single member of the Houston secondary has earned a coverage grade above 70.0, while defensive backs
Phillip Gaines,
Keion Crossen and
Lonnie Johnson Jr. have all stumbled to sub-30.0 coverage grades through seven weeks. Long story short, The Texans needed secondary help, badly.
Now three years into his career, Conley hasn’t wowed like many thought he would, but he’s almost certainly going to provide an upgrade for the Houston secondary simply due to the fact that it can’t get much worse. He’s played 356 total snaps through seven weeks, and though he has graded below 70.0 in five of his six games, he did show the kind of impact he can have on the back end in his team’s Week 4 game against Indianapolis when he allowed just two completions from five targets, coming away with an interception and an elite single-game coverage grade in the process.
There are certainly reasons to believe that Conley’s acquisition would be good for all involved, not least is the coverage scheme in which he’s set to play. Seven games in, the Houston Texans have played a man coverage shell on 50.3% of their snaps, which is the fourth-highest rate among teams and a 19% increase from the Raiders’ use. This so happens to play right into Conley’s strengths, as the former Buckeye has earned a coverage grade of 62.3 in his snaps in man coverage, forcing an incompletion on 21.7% of his targets. On his snaps in zone coverage, where he’s played the majority of his snaps over the last three years, Conley has earned a 61.2 coverage grade and forced an incompletion on only 15.4% of his targets.
It’s a hefty price for the Texans and Bill O’Brien to pay, and it’s almost certainly a gamble given that Conley has earned just seven single-game grades north of 70.0 over his entire career, but there is no doubt that a change of scenery is just what Conley needs to finally realize his first-round pedigree.
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