Houston Texans Free Agency 2017: top 5 targets

3. A.J. Bouye

A.J. Bouye is an interesting case. On one hand, the Texans do not absolutely need him. They have Kareem Jackson, Jonathan Joseph, and Kevin Johnson. All three are NFL caliber starters. The ship would go on without Bouye. However, Joseph missed five starts last season, Jackson missed four and Johnson missed 13. On top of that, when any were healthy, Bouye was the best of the bunch.

Depth at cornerback is not necessarily a bad thing. It also would ease the role of Joseph, who is an aging cornerback, and Jackson who may be better suited as a depth option anyways. The case can be made that the Texans should spend on Bouye.

At the same time, he may end up being the highest paid cornerback on the market. Spend on Bouye, sure. Overpay? Maybe not. Nonetheless, the Texans have to try.

They could end up moving from Vince Wilfork and Brian Cushing, and that would help in the cap space department. If they can hook Bouye into taking a few million less than the market dictates, given a hometown type of discount they would be happy to bring Bouye back. Bouye may also know that the Texans and their talent around him and defensive scheme certainly helped.

Unless it is heaping amounts of guaranteed money, the safer long-term bet may be for him to stay as well. It will be interesting to see, but there is no doubt the Texans will give it a valiant effort before letting him slip through their hands.