The Texans are trading cornerback Bradley Roby to the Saints (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). The Texans will receive a 2022 third-round pick and a conditional 2023 choice in the swap (Twitter link via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com). Meanwhile, as reported on Thursday morning, the Texans will cover $7MM of Roby’s salary this season while the Saints pay the remaining ~$1.8MM.
Roby was hit with a six-game suspension in December for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. He’s already served five of those games, so he’ll be eligible to play for the Saints in Week 2 when they take on the Panthers.
In ten games (all starts), Roby notched 37 tackles, one interception, a fumble recovery, and seven passes defended. Even though he was briefly deactivated in November, the veteran stood as the Texans’ best corner.
Now, the 29-year-old will jump into a Saints secondary that badly needs reinforcements. Between Roby and newcomer Desmond Trufant, the Saints are in a much better position that they were just last week. Together, they’ll team up with Marshon Lattimore, Ken Crawley, and Paulson Adebo. Meanwhile, free safety P.J. Williams should be able to stick to his natural position.
The Saints will assume the rest of Roby’s three-year, $31.5MM deal, keeping him under club control through 2022. The Texans, meanwhile, will move forward with Terrance Mitchell and Desmond King II as their top corners.
Saints are paying starter money for a guy that doesn’t have starter talent.
That’s probably because Roby is still arguably better than just about everyone in the Saints secondary not named Marshon Lattimore. It seems like the Saints have had secondary issues every year since they joined the league.
You gotta think that roby is excited to leave Houston too, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to go there right now, unless your a vet tryin to show you can still play, roby is better than Desmond trufant, I just watched him all preseason and he was beat out by players named duke shelley and kindle vildor…
Roby is definitely an NFL starter. There are at least 64 starting corner jobs in the NFL, 96 if we consider nickel corners as starters, which they are in the modern league. We could consider fourth corners as starters or spot starters given how many teams run four DB sets where the fourth DB is a corner instead of a safety. So your premise is already that he is not one of the 64 or 96 best corners in the league.
Okay, if you believe that nonsense, consider this. Roby last year earned a decent 71.5 grade from PFF. That’s not spectacular, but it’s not bad. However, Roby’s zone coverage grades comparatively elevate him to being the 10th best corner in the NFL per PFF for last year. The list is measured by forced incompletion percentage, which Roby posted at 13.1%. He was also more targeted than any other corner in the top ten, except for Stephon Gilmore (14.1% on 524 targets), by a pretty wide margin (Roby had 498 targets as opposed to the next closest corner, Casey Heyward, who had 458 targets. Just to note, Marshon Lattimore appears at number 8, with 13.6% on a lesser 301 targets). Guess what the Saints run on about 60% of their defensive snaps? That’s right, zone coverage.
Add that to the fact that he caused four turnovers (including a pick six) in his two year Texans tenure. So you can say Roby is not an NFL starter, but you’re just categorically incorrect.
Hell, with how defenses run dime a lot, you could say each team has 4 starting CBs.
Starter money? They can’t afford to. That’s why they had to give up the extra draft capital to get the Texans to eat the bulk of the money.
1.8M is not starter money. That’s what the saints are paying for this season. And then next year they will either restructure his contract, extend him, or release him.
The Texans are paying 7 mil of his salary this season. So they are buying two draft picks. Which makes sense for a team that’s rebuilding. Looks like a good trade from both sides.
Let the Texans fire sale begin! They may not be able to trade Watson but just about everyone else is available. They have to know that this isn’t going to be their year.
Where have you been? The fire sale started at the end of last season. It’s a complete organization rebuild.
Breath of fresh air. Gm acquiring draft picks instead of trading them.
Texans trading everybody away.
Good. Trade the washing machines, dryer, kitchen sink too. Everything must go.
Nobody should be untouchable. Unload as much money off the books as you can. Get picks and rebuild.
Exactly. Gonna be a rough couple of years, but look at Cleveland. They did the same thing and are now considered a contender.
How many times does Zach basically repost his same article?
Wonder what the conditional pick range is
Google is your friend…it’s a 6th rounder.