2019 NFL Mock Draft: Charley Casserly Strikes Again

The 2019 NFL Draft is ten days away. Mock drafts are flying off the virtual shelves. Everyone with a pulse is releasing his or her mock draft, and Charley Casserly’s no different. He has a pulse. Ergo, he has a mock draft.

Don’t think that the Texans’ original general manager just took the easy way out, either. He didn’t mail it in by simply sending the highest-ranked tackle left on the board to Houston at Pick No. 23. Instead, the man who once sent Houston’s second, third, and fourth round draft picks (along with a swap of fifth-round picks) to the Titans for the right to select Jason Babin late in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft matched the Texans up with a name I’ve never seen associated with the team as a possible first rounder.

23. Houston Texans: Rock Ya-Sin - CB (Temple)

The Texans lose out on an offensive lineman with the Eagles’ savvy trade, but rebound by selecting Ya-Sin to fill a need at CB.

Admittedly, I don’t dissect mock drafts with the fury I used to, so perhaps I missed the potential fit between Ya-Sin and Houston. Intrigued, I set out in search of more information about Rock Ya-Sin. I found Lance Zierlein’s draft profile of the Temple corner. Note that LZ compared Ya-Sin to Nate Hairston.

Now, I like to consider myself a somewhat educated football fan, and I had no clue who Nate Hairston was. That’s probably not a positive sign. Then I read this analysis of Hairston’s performance for the Colts in 2018, and Casserly’s first-round assessment of Ya-Sin looked even more questionable.

Undeterred, I kept at it. None of these draft analysts seemed particularly high, at least as a potential first round pick, on Ya-Sin. Nor did this guy. Or this one. Or this dude. In fact, I was unable to find a mock draft written by someone other than Charley Casserly that had Rock Ya-Sin as a first-rounder.

What do you know about Rock Ya-Sin? If the Texans did in fact select him with the 23rd overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft, how would you react?