The Houston Texans, in the process of their tireless offseason work earlier last month, not only added another dose of talent to their offensive side of the ball, but bolstered their defensive end as well with the signing of former Philadelphia Eagles safety Reed Blankenship.
On a three-year deal at just under $25 million in total, the Texans were able to fortify their second starting safety next to Pro Bowler Calen Bullock with a perfect complement that they didn’t consistently have in place in the back-end last season.
Blankenship has the perfect skill set, experience, and innate knack as a leader that’s been shown through four years in Philadelphia that should allow him to fit like a glove in DeMeco Ryans’ already elite unit.
From Texans general manager Nick Caserio‘s perspective, Blankenship brings some unique qualities to the table that he and the coaching staff took a particular liking to; not just due to the winning edge he brings to the equation, but also because of how the former undrafted free agent got to the point he is now.
“He’s got a pretty cool story. He was a player that’s a good example [of a] player that wasn’t drafted and had a good career to this point,” Caserio said on Texans All-Access. “He’s been a part of a lot of winning. He won a Super Bowl in Philadelphia. I think everybody that you talk to talks about his awareness, his instinctiveness, and just adding a certain level of calm to the secondary.”
“That was a player that we had studied, we evaluated, and our coaches kind of took a liking to him. So we were able to kind of make it work.”