Say it ain't so, Smithiak:
Now that free agency has begun, Miami offensive lineman Rex Hadnot and Dallas cornerback Jacques Reeves are coming to Houston to visit with the Texans.
In a perfect world, the Texans will sign both players to fill need positions -- Hadnot at center and Reeves competing for the starting job opposite Fred Bennett.
As I briefly noted in the Comments here, I like the idea of bringing Hadnot on board (assuming no ridiculous contract is required, which could be a big assumption). But Jacques Reeves? No thank you. A brief confession: I do have one (1) friend who is an unabashed Cowboys fan. Yes, he's a bad person and yes, hanging out with someone of such low moral fiber necessarily casts doubt upon my character as well. But that's not the point. The point is that I've listened to my buddy complain about Jacques Reeves for the past several months to the point that I fear Reeves could give Petey Faggins a run for his money in the category of "Players The Opposing Team Exploits Like It's Going Out Of Style." This fear is confirmed by the following postseason roster analysis from our colleagues over at SB Nation's Blogging the Boys:
Jacques Reeves - Thrust into a starting role because of injuries to Newman then Henry, Reeves actually played better than I anticipated but that still wasn't good enough. The odd thing was his play seemed to get worse as the season wore on instead of better. Like Newman, Reeves has tremendous speed, but unlike Newman he seems to lack the rest of the skills needed to be a good corner. He plays without confidence and that keeps him from attacking the football; he spends way too much time backing off receivers and giving them easy catches underneath. His concern for getting beat deep overshadows the rest of his play. Perhaps he's not that good at back-pedaling or he might not have the instincts to anticipate a pattern and then make the play. Whatever the case, teams regularly picked on him and had no problems completing 10-15 yard `out' or `comeback' patterns. If the Cowboys want to have a better pass defense then they have to upgrade the nickel corner position and allow Reeves to test the free agent market. If they can sign him back at a bargain price then by all means do it, if they can't then let him go. If Reeves returns in 2008 he should be relegated to 4th CB and should concentrate on special teams.
Who does that remind you of? Perhaps this guy? I'm going to have nightmares about this tonight.
