Houston Texans: Five ways to improve the roster before week one by T.A. Mock

The Houston Texans have cut undrafted cornerback Andre Chachere from the roster. With need for depth at CB, this will be a regrettable decision. Why? Look.

The Houston Texans have been busy trimming their roster down to the 53-man limit as the start of the season approaches. NFL teams can have up to 90 players during training camp but today marks the moment where it all has to be done in one swoop.

The deadline will be at 3 p.m. CDT today and it’ll be interesting to see who will make the final cut to be a member of the Houston Texans. There are still a lot of names to be mentioned but some of the most surprising cuts so far have been safety Corey Moore and wide receiver Braxton Miller. Both had not done necessarily anything to lose their job but I guess the Houston Texans felt that there are other players out there where they could get more production from.

With the team finishing 4-12 last season, they had 4th-worst record meaning that’s going to be their position in queue to pluck guys that were cut off other roster. As opposed to previous seasons, I expect the Houston Texans to be quite active on this front which is why the early cuts have been so rampant.

Who knows how this final roster will look when the dust settles but hopefully they’ll assemble a product that will complement the first-team talent that we have on this roster.

But let’s talk about a cut that I have a huge disagreement with.

Yesterday, the Houston Texans decided to cut undrafted free agent Andre Chachere out of San Jose State who had a solid preseason and had notable pass breakup in the final game of the preseason against the Dallas Cowboys.

To be honest, this guy should’ve been drafted in the late rounds but I’d imagine teams were hesitant because he did have some battles with injury in his final days with the Spartans. The

Texans were lucky to sign him but it puzzles me as to why they’d cut him?

He’s speedy — has the ability to run the 40-yard dash in 4.49 seconds — and just an explosive tackler all the way around. He knows where he needs to be at all times and it’s rare to see his assignment get the best of him.

Chachere would be a candidate for the 10-player practice squad but I’m afraid with his performance in the preseason, somebody will sign him off of it.

According to Pro Football Focus, Chachere had an overall grade of a 78.5, a tackling grade of 76.7, coverage (78.0) and run defense (72.5). If those grades aren’t worthy, I don’t know what is!

I know that PFF grades aren’t the end-all, tell-all of determining talent but with my own eyes I see that this guy is definitely worth keeping around.

The ONLY REASON why I feel he was cut was that the Houston Texans don’t have a top-shelf cornerback — none of the ones on the roster are in Pro Football Focus Top 70 — and they feel they can do better by signing for more help in free agency.

And I’ll slide in another caveat — Bill O’Brien typically doesn’t like to lean off of rookies to get the job done with Deshaun Watson being the only exception because he’s such a game-changer for this team.

The team did sign Kayvon Webster last week but with that guy just coming off a serious Achilles’ injury, they don’t want to gamble on him being able to perform right out of the gate.

We’ll have to see but these are just my two cents.

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Chachere amassed 14 tackles — one assisted — and three passes defensed through 190 snaps in all four games of the 2018 preseason.

For more grades, advanced statistics and more at Pro Football Focus, subscribe to PFF’s EDGE or ELITE subscriptions at ProFootballFocus.com.