It’s no secret by now that the Houston Texans have two urgently pressing needs at both cornerback and offensive tackle.

While their defense performed well as a whole last season, they really struggled downfield against deep threats in particular, and with Kevin Johnson now released, and the likes of mainstay Kareem Jackson also potentially moving on this offseason.

This was confirmed by Deepi Sidhu from the HoustonTexans.com who spoke to The Texans Wire on Friday about the prospect of drafting a corner in the first round.

“When you look at the depth chart for the Texans in the cornerback room, they need bodies,” said Sidhu. “They need bodies at cornerback, so I can totally see them going cornerback in the first round of the draft.”

However, equally important is their need for an offensive tackle given that for a large part of the season quarterback Deshaun Watson was their leading rusher due in major part to poor run blocking, and with Watson having been sacked 62 times all year it’s relatively safe to say at this point that if they want Deshaun to play past 25 they’ll need to keep him upright.

Weighing in on this also, Sidhu emphasized that their decisions early on in the draft are entirely dependent on their moves in free agency.

“With either offensive linemen or cornerback, I think, you could go either way. ” said Sidhu, who then went on to say: “The free agent market is going to determine a lot of what happens in the draft.

“If the Texans can find a solution, another solution I should say, at tackle in the free agent market then I do see them going after a corner in the first round of the draft. Now vice versa, if they find a free agent corner I can see them going tackle in the first round. Or you never know, they may sign a corner and then they may still draft a corner.”

Houston has been doing their due diligence in scouting cornerbacks. Some mock drafts after the NFL combine have showed the Texans taking a cornerback in the first round. Regardless, it is how the club uses its top-100 pick in addressing pressing needs that will determine its effectiveness in 2019.