Texans Ink Safety Chris Clemons to Bolster Secondary

The Texans have signed former Dolphins safety Chris Clemons to a two year deal. This signing comes a week after the Texans inked Kendrick Lewis to bolster the secondary and not long after Daniel Manning took a pay cut. ESPN analyst and former GM Bill Polian had Clemons as the 2nd best available safety on the open market and ProFootballFocus as of March 26th had him as the 2nd best available free agent on the market. As rated by Pro-football-reference.com, Chris Clemons posts a similiar average value to that of marquee safety T.J. Ward at a much more frugal price tag. Although the Texans ended up with the 3rd ranked pass defense, it was not heavily tested, and the secondary looks far more sound this upcoming campaign with the maturation of DJ Swearinger and the likes of Chris Clemons getting snaps in the stead of Shiloh Keo. Clemons is a sound veteran, and as recently as 2012 posted the sixth most efficient tackle rating of any safety. Granted, Chris is not a ballhawk, but he will play well in coverage and most importantly heavily in helping the Texans clean up a run defense that ranked 22nd last year. While starting in Miami, the safeties were responsible for a minuscule percentage of the passing yards allowed by the defense, and Clemons played a huge factor in that. Although the departure of Antonio Smith and Earl Mitchell will hurt, new defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel will have several pieces in place with the likes of Cushing, Watt, Jackson, Joseph, Swearinger, and Clemons. Acquiring Chris Clemons is a nice piece to the puzzle, and if the Texans brass can nail the draft, holes in the line and LB corps could be patched nicely.

Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Sk	Int	Lng	PD	FF	FR	TD	Tkl	Ast	AV
2009	24	MIA	db	30	11	2								5	3	1
2010	25	MIA	FS	30	15	14	1.5	1	0	5	2	1	0	49	10	6
2011	26	MIA		30	14	0								4	2	0
2012	27	MIA	db/S	30	16	16		2	29	4	0	1	0	69	26	7
2013	28	MIA	S/ss	30	16	16		1	0	8				62	30	6
Career					72	48	1.5	4	29	17	2	2	0	189	71	20