2018 NFL Draft: Was Justin Reid The Steal Of The Third Round?

Shortly after passing on what NFL insiders thought of the Texans’ 2018 draft class (even if parts of those thoughts didn’t make much sense), ESPN’s Mike Sando is back with what “...general managers, former GMs and prominent evaluators who have interviewed for GM jobs, plus evaluators with experience in other areas” believed were the steals in each round of the 2018 NFL Draft. According to an unnamed person of alleged knowledge and influence, your Houston Texans got themselves the heist of the third round in Justin Reid:

68. Justin Reid, Safety, Houston Texans

The Texans had a huge need at safety but no picks in the first two rounds. This selection worked out well for them.

”Reid is one of the better athletes in the draft,” the insider responsible for the third round said. “He could probably play nickel and free safety. He is going to take a little time because he didn’t play a lot in deep-center field. He played a lot of nickel. There were teams that had him at the top of the second round. Another guy in the third round who stands out a little bit is B.J. Hill. He is an athletic nose tackle who is hard to block. He is better than Reid right now, but Reid might have more upside.”

Many pundits, biased in favor of the Texans and otherwise, have commended Houston for their selection of Reid and raved about the value the team got with his addition in the third round. Nevertheless, it’s never a bad thing to hear another voice join the choir (provided it’s not the same dude who opined that Whitney Mercilus could be a cap casualty this year), especially in a year where the absence of picks in the first and second round drastically limited the amount of high-end talent the team could reasonably expect to find available.