For the second straight year, Texans safety Justin Reid will undergo offseason surgery. Last year, Reid went under the knife for a wrist ailment, and this year, he will have surgery to repair a torn labrum, as Mark Berman of Fox 26 KRIV tweets.
Reid has quietly established himself as one of the game’s better young safeties, and it’s fair to wonder how good he would be if he were completely healthy. As a rookie, he battled the wrist injury throughout the 2018 season, and he was playing through the labrum tear in 2019. His perseverance has earned him the respect of his teammates, who voted him the 2019 winner of the Ed Block Courage Award.
Though he did miss one regular season game with a concussion, Reid started every one of the club’s other 15 games, picking up two interceptions to go along with 78 total tackles. He was also on the field for every defensive snap in both of the Texans’ postseason contests.
Houston largely struggled in pass defense in 2019, but Reid earned strong reviews for his work from Pro Football Focus. As a 2018 rookie, the Stanford product will be eligible for an extension for the first time next offseason. However, fellow safety Jahleel Addae is eligible for free agency this year, along with cornerbacks Johnathan Joseph and Bradley Roby, so there could be a lot of turnover in the Texans’ defensive backfield.