If there is a position in the National Football League where teams feel you can never have too many capable bodies, it’s the cornerback, especially in today’s NFL, which is quite the pass happy league. There are certain defensive back-heavy formations where teams can have up to four cornerbacks on the field at once. Depth is necessary.

The Texans took a depth hit at cornerback earlier this summer, when veteran Ronald Darby decided to retire before ever playing a game for the Texans. This left the Texans with high level starters at outside corner in Derek Stingley and Kamari Lassiter, with a major drop off after that.

At this point in the offseason, you have to get resourceful to find new talent, and thus, the Texans opted on Wednesday to sign former Raiders (in the NFL) and recently former Roughnecks (in the UFL) cornerback Damon Arnette:

NFL comeback story: #Texans are expected to sign former #Raiders first-round CB Damon Arnette, per source, who now returns to the NFL for the first time since 2022.

Arnette just finished playing with the UFL’s Houston Roughnecks, recording 18 tackles, a sack, and a pick-six.… pic.twitter.com/TPWXyfQket

— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) June 18, 2025 To say that Arnette, a former first round pick of the Raiders in 2020, has a checkered past would be an understatement. Within NFL circles, the most infamous part of his story was his release from the Raiders on November 8, 2021, when a video surfaced of Arnette toting guns and making death threats. This came less than a week after Arnette’s fellow Raiders 2020 first round pick, Henry Ruggs, killed a woman in a drunk driving accident.

From there, Arnette was given a couple more chances in the NFL over the next several months, spending several weeks at the end of 2021 with the Dolphins practice squad, before being released, and then spending a week in Kansas City in early 2022, before that stint was short circuited by another arrest. Arenette’s off field behavior issues led to him being out of football for nearly three yeats.

However, Arnette seems to have cleaned up his act, and has his life back on a productive path. In an interview with Aaron Wilson of KPRC Channel 2, Arnette said this about his off field transformation:

“I’m 28 years old right now with three kids, with a mom and dad that loves me and has my back right now,” Arnette told KPRC 2 earlier this spring. “With coaches, I feel like I’ve proved a complete turnaround. All the coaches that have been with me right now, I feel like their words would be more valuable because I’ve said a lot of things in the past. What I would say is what they see on film, that’s me being out of commission for three years,

“I’m a dawg on the field. I’m more of a professional now than I ever was before. I wasn’t a professional before. I was just a dawg. I found professionalism and a calm state of mind. I feel like I’m the best version of myself that I’ve ever been.”

The entire conversation between Wilson and Arnette can be found here:
Arnette played this past UFL season here in Houston for the Roughnecks, and by all accounts, was a model citizen and a good player. This is a calculated risk by the Texans, in a signing that is likely around the league minimum, for a talent that was, at one time, viewed as good enough to be selected with a first round pick. Hopefully, it works out for all parties.

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