The Texans have agreed to sign Steven Nelson, as Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network tweets. Once finalized, it’ll be a two-year, $10MM deal for the veteran cornerback.
A free agent in April for the second straight year, Nelson took a trip to Houston earlier this week. He’ll now join up with the Texans, moving on from a one-year stint with the Eagles. Previous to that, Nelson spent the early part of his career with the Chiefs (four seasons) and the Steelers (two seasons).
The former third-round pick worked as a starter with Philadelphia last season, just as he has for most of his career. To date, Nelson’s got 84 starts out of 98 total games.
The Texans re-signed Desmond King this offseason and they’ve also got Lonnie Johnson going into his walk year. Nelson, 29, will probably serve as a short-term answer at corner.
Nelson isn’t a world-beater, but he’s reliable — he hasn’t missed more than one game in any given season since 2017. His best recent work came in 2019 with the Steelers when he allowed a 50% completion rate and notched a 65.8 passer rating on plays where he was the closest defender. That year, his first in Pittsburgh, he ceded zero touchdowns. However, between 2020 and 2021, Nelson allowed 12 TDs.
I thought he retired from New England years ago.
Nice, I remember him.
That’s a pretty solid deal both ways. Nelson’s been smart enough to realize that he isn’t going to get top tier CB money, so he’s instead signed a series of one and two year deals for mid-tier money, meaning he can play his way to a bigger payday or get out of the deal more quickly if it’s a bad fit. And Houston landed a pretty solid vet at a pretty good rate.