If it was the last thing in the world to read I would never read any Dallas based article for any reason let alone why the texans would sign him to such a deal. I have no real reason to distrust smith's reasoning. I'll reserve judgment for another day.
It seems like Kubes and Smith are really high on Reeves.....maybe their seeing something we're not. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5584911.html Kubiak said the Texans targeted Reeves from the beginning and that defensive coordinator Richard Smith, defensive backs coach Jon Hoke and assistant defensive backs coach Ray Rhodes wanted Reeves. "We're happy to get him," Kubiak said. "There's no doubt we've upgraded our team. There's no secret our secondary is an issue and we really believe he's going to help us."
No, I live in Dallas, have watched him play and calling him Faggins 2.0 is an insult to Petey Faggins. He's really really BAD. The Cowboys dumped him and they need help in their secondary so that should tell you something. When I read in the Chronicle that the Texans' coaches felt that they could "coach" him into being better, all I could say was "Uh Oh!". I find myself scratching my head on this move...
Yeah, I have to concur on this one. If you guys thought Faggins was bad, wait til you get a load of this guy. I think, though, from watching both teams this past season, it might be possible to say that Faggins was actually worse, but not by much. One thing is for certain, however, this guy was NOT going to be getting significant playing time this coming year, and there is no WAY he was going to get anything more than the minimum from the Cowboys. Hey, he's still young, but man, the Texans definitely didn't watch any tape on him before handing him that check.. eek.
Could care less what the casual Dallas fan thinks. I'm not going to pass judgment here, but the one thing I will say is that corner is the most difficult position for casual fans to evaluate, because there are so many factors at play. For one, if they're left on an island, no corner in the league can keep up with better receivers, yet fans freak out about it. That happened a lot in Dallas, an aggressive defense that sends a lot of blitzes. Also, even when he wasn't, his backup help in Dallas was Roy Williams -- the worst pass coverage safety in the league. If the Texans can generate a solid pass rush with their front four -- meaning Mario has another All-Pro season and Okoye takes a similar leap to what Mario did this past year -- I don't see why Reeves can't develop and be a decent CB. Look at Phillip Buchanon. The insults on Reeves are nothing compared to what Texans fans threw at Buchanon. Suddenly, however, Buchanon is a solid starter on one of the best defenses in the league. Why? He went from a team that generated zero pass rush to one of the better pass rushing units in the league. Amazing what that'll do for a corner. I'm not saying I know Reeves will be a solid starter. But the Texans can get more pressure without blitzing than the Cowboys, and they also have better safety help. I also think they have a good defensive coaching staff, given the development we saw from players such as Hutchins last season. If Reeves has the speed and natural talent to be a good corner, I don't mind taking the chance.
The only question I have for the Texans coaching staff and front office is....Are you sure you were watching Jacques Reeves on all those game films? You sure you weren't mistaking him for Newman or Henry? Seriously $20 million for Reeves? Smith and Kubiak have done a good job so far, but this is one of the most idiotic signings I've seen in awhile. As a Cowboys fan, I've been watching this guy pretend to play CB for the past four years and I couldn't be happier to see him leave. But I'm disappointed it is to Houston. Reeves is a 4th or 5th CB. If he sees significant playing time in Houston, the Texans are screwed defensively.
OK, I'm a Cowboy fan by birth, I watched a lot of Jacque Reeves and thought he sucked but; I think Ray Rhodes just may know a little bit more about playing CB in the NFL than I do so I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt here. In the same vein, I can't wait to see what Alex Gibbs can do with Brandon Frye too. I really liked what I saw of him in the pre-07 draft coverage. Having him in the off season program has got to give the former 5th rounder as much value as a 2nd or 3rd round drafted rookie.
5 for $20M??? Hopefully Smith/Kubiak will prove us all wrong because from what I know of the guy (from watching him play and what others have seen from him), he isn't a #1 type of CB at all.
Maybe the first and last time I'll ever agree with a cowboy fan. Let's see what Ray Rhodes can do with him first. I'm guessing they saw something easily fixable that the cowboys staff may have missed. It's also the great thing about NFL contracts. They aren't 100% guaranteed. If he sucks...see ya.
As a starting corner for a 13-3 team and a pretty good team pass defense ranked 13 out of 31, in Jacques Reeves the Texans addressed a very legitimate need. Their bringing in free agent LB Bentley from Seattle today.
They're bringing in Kevin Bentley, a back-up LB from a good linebacking corp in seattle. He'll compete for a starting job.
I don't pretend to know anything about Mr. Reeves, but doing some reading, it appears he was at or near the top of the league in having passes thrown at him. As a fractional percentage, he appears to be fairly successful as a corner, but since the ball was thrown at him so much, perhaps that is why some of the Dallas fans are so down on him? Fans don't remember successful passes defended, only those which are failures. Opposing QB’s went after him, but he seems to have handled it reasonably well. (If that didn't make sense, to paraphrase it appears he gave up a lot of bad plays only because he was a part of so many plays, not because he was failing more often than the league average starting corner. If you have 100 balls thrown at you, and give up 55 receptions, that is better than 50 balls thrown and 30 receptions, but fans remember only 55 caught balls given up vs. 30 since fans don't add up good plays.) Most of the free agent lists that I can find seem to rank him in the top group of free agent corners, so I really think he is not as bad as the Dallas fans who are familiar with him seem to want to make him appear. It also appears that people think very highly of him against the run, which seems to be a Texans CB trademark.
Any chance the Texans will trade with the Eagles for Lito Shepherd? As an Eagles fan,I hate the Samuels move,but I guess if they [the Eagles] could get a 2nd rounder for Shapherd,it'll make it a little better.
I will say a couple of positive things about Reeves: For a little while he filled in well for the cowboys when they were having injury issues. Of course after that he fell off and was picked on mercilessly. And he was good enough that the cowboys didn't even think twice about cutting aaron glenn. But you know what? He has one career interception. I know that isn't the end all be all stat, kinda like sacks with dlinemen. But it's still a little embarassing. Hopefully the texans can coach him up a bit. This move could work out, but on the surface right now, it doesn't look good.
He was not a starting corner for the Cowboys, though he started a couple of games b/c of injuries. Newman and Henry were the starting corners, and the difference between them and him was HUGE. Reeves played OK early in the season, but later just sucked as a nickle even. He was the DB from the Boys who the QB would single out and pick on, without question. Decent nickle at best, I didn't want the Boys to keep him if it was going to cost anything more than 1 mil a year--if he came back I would have hoped he would have been beaten out of the nickle spot.
If by a couple of games you mean 13, then yeah. http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/02/jacques-reeves-a-busy-man.html
The NFL Network ranked this signing ninth out of their top ten free agent signings on Saturday. Adam Schefter said it was a good move for the Texans.
