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DeAndre Houston-Carson Returns


soulman

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Chicago Bears re-sign safety DeAndre Houston-Carson

ByMatt Eurich 4 hours ago
 

 

The Chicago Bears have brought back one of their own. The team announced on Friday it has re-signed defensive back DeAndre Houston-Carson to a one-year deal.

A sixth-round pick out of William & Mary in 2016, Houston-Carson saw action in eight games as a rookie. He finished that season with just two tackles and saw the majority of his work on special teams. In 2017 he was waived before the start of the season and was eventually placed on the practice squad. He was added to the 53-man roster a couple of weeks into the season and eventually saw action in 11 games. During that time he recorded 10 tackles and two forced fumbles. He saw a total of 16 snaps on defense, with his seven snaps against Baltimore being the most he played all season.

Houston-Carson also played 193 snaps on special teams, proving to be a solid contributor on that unit during the 2017 season. The hope was for Houston-Carson to secure one of the backup jobs at the safety position and be a stalwart on special teams for the second year in a row in 2018. He suffered an injury during the preseason and went on to appear in 13 games for Chicago this past season. He recorded a total of 10 tackles. The majority of his snaps came on special teams for the organization. He played 46 snaps on defense and 260 snaps on special teams.

As a four-year starter at William & Mary, Houston-Carson racked up 293 tackles and 10 interceptions. He earned All-American honors in his final season and was invited to both the Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine. He was also a finalist for the STATS FCS National Defensive Player of the Year award. He spent time playing the cornerback position prior to his senior year in college. As a junior he blocked a punt in three straight games.

At the time, NFL.com's Lance Zierlein viewed Houston-Carson to go as high as the fourth round in the 2016 NFL Draft, writing:

"Houston­-Carson exudes confidence and football intelligence on the field and plays with the swagger of a D­-1 safety. In coverage, he is instinctive and responsive and trusts his eyes. While he is a ready, aggressive tackler, he still needs more beef on his frame and has to fine tune his angles to the ball to eliminate some of the big plays he has had a hand in. His physical and mental tools are starter's quality and his special teams talent should get him on the field right away."

He adds much-needed depth to the safety position for the Bears. He joins Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Eddie Jackson and Deon Bush at the safety position. His biggest role will be on special teams this upcoming season. The Bears previously declined to tender him this offseason when he was a restricted free agent.

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4 hours ago, soulman said:

Interesting in that it fills up the last remaining Safety spot so a rookie will be competing with DHC and Bush for a spot.

Could Pace be thinking about trading up again to get the RB of his choice?

He better have something cooking  ...  Davis can be solid but to give Howard away for practically  nothing ! He either has trade up  plans  or knows  of another vet that will shake  loose ...   or Patterson will have a much larger role than initially expected  ...

We haven't even seen Davis in this offense yet or know if he can stay healthy  ... 

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DHC is a ST only guy IMO. I don’t think he really impacts the safety rotation at all, and I can’t foresee his presence altering our draft plans. I suspect he got a vet minimum deal or very close to it with minimal to no guarantees. This was strictly about setting a floor for our potential core ST group. DHC is a very reliable 4-phase ST guy which is something every team needs. 

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1 hour ago, AZBearsFan said:

DHC is a ST only guy IMO. I don’t think he really impacts the safety rotation at all, and I can’t foresee his presence altering our draft plans. I suspect he got a vet minimum deal or very close to it with minimal to no guarantees. This was strictly about setting a floor for our potential core ST group. DHC is a very reliable 4-phase ST guy which is something every team needs. 

Just that if he makes the team he fills another roster spot is all and if you want him coring ST then he's one of 45 active on game day and a potential part of a Safety rotation.  But yeah, 16 snaps on defense is barely a sniff.  More like an emergency injury replacement.

I only brought it up because most of the predictions have now come down to either a RB or a SS with our first pick at #87.  If it's a SS typically that guy will be on the roster and bumping up against Bush and DH-C for his spot.  May be tough to carry 5 Safeties is all I'm thinkin'.

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3 hours ago, SLCbear said:

He better have something cooking  ...  Davis can be solid but to give Howard away for practically  nothing ! He either has trade up  plans  or knows  of another vet that will shake  loose ...   or Patterson will have a much larger role than initially expected  ...

We haven't even seen Davis in this offense yet or know if he can stay healthy  ... 

Nagy has said he envisions finding ways to us Patterson more at RB than just an occasional jet sweep but.....that remains to be seen.

I don't think there's any doubt he'll draft a RB but who and where is a mystery and I think that will have a lot to do with whether or not Pace bring in another vet RB.  If he's 100% I'd think a guy like Spencer Ware would be a nice compliment to Davis.  But if we traded Howard partly because of not wanting to pay $2 mil to a back we weren't using much Pace isn't likely to bring in a different vet and pay him that much as a #3 back.

If he can draft the back he wants there's a good chance it's gonna be Davis, Cohen, Rookie, and Patterson.

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1 hour ago, Madmike90 said:

Solid move as a ST player mostly...I reckon Bush backups HaHa and HaHa backs up Jackson in a 3 man only rotation.

Interesting take Mike, DHC has good size and I read one scouting report that said he played both CB/FS. But in one year he had over 100 tackles so that is more indicative of. SS/run support specialist.

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6 hours ago, soulman said:

Just that if he makes the team he fills another roster spot is all and if you want him coring ST then he's one of 45 active on game day and a potential part of a Safety rotation.  But yeah, 16 snaps on defense is barely a sniff.  More like an emergency injury replacement.

I only brought it up because most of the predictions have now come down to either a RB or a SS with our first pick at #87.  If it's a SS typically that guy will be on the roster and bumping up against Bush and DH-C for his spot.  May be tough to carry 5 Safeties is all I'm thinkin'.

We’ve carried just 5 in prior years but you’re right that extra spot has to come from somewhere. We carried 6 WR last year but with both Cohen and Patterson capable of playing both RB and WR I think it’s very possible a roster spot could come from there should we choose to still draft a safety. 

Edited by AZBearsFan
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1 hour ago, AZBearsFan said:

We’ve carried just 5 in prior years but you’re right that extra spot has to come from somewhere. We carried 6 WR last year but with both Cohen and Patterson capable of playing both RB and WR I think it’s very possible a roster spot could come from there should we choose to still draft a safety. 

Oh I don't believe we'll ignore drafting a Safety.  Bush will be a FA and C-Dix and AC-H are on one year deals.  I'm just wondering how Pace will prioritize it since we'll have a far greater number of picks next year.   Mike Edwards out of KY is one whose often been mentioned as a good fit for us and I can see him as a fit.  Has a little Mike Brown to him it seems.

In a year when we're drafting not so much for now but for 1-2 years from now I tend to be more curious about how Pace will develop his board and prioritize his picks.  With the possible exception of a RB nearly all of the rookies will be in backup roles or being developed on the PS.  So which position do you try to fill first with only 3 mid round picks to do it?

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18 hours ago, soulman said:

Could Pace be thinking about trading up again to get the RB of his choice?

He's certainly locked himself into drafting one high, IMO. Which is sort of uncharacteristic. That's the main reason I think that if he was set on trading Howard, he should have waited for the draft. But as someone pointed out in the Howard trade thread, trading him now was a better move for Howard. So, whatever...

1 hour ago, soulman said:

Oh I don't believe we'll ignore drafting a Safety.  Bush will be a FA and C-Dix and AC-H are on one year deals.  I'm just wondering how Pace will prioritize it since we'll have a far greater number of picks next year.   

I can easily see him ignoring the safety position this year, and waiting 'til next. He'll have two seconds at his disposal. And if Ha-Ha and Jackson decide they enjoy playing together, the cap may be at a friendlier point to do just that. 

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22 minutes ago, Heinz D. said:

He's certainly locked himself into drafting one high, IMO. Which is sort of uncharacteristic. That's the main reason I think that if he was set on trading Howard, he should have waited for the draft. But as someone pointed out in the Howard trade thread, trading him now was a better move for Howard. So, whatever...

I can easily see him ignoring the safety position this year, and waiting 'til next. He'll have two seconds at his disposal. And if Ha-Ha and Jackson decide they enjoy playing together, the cap may be at a friendlier point to do just that. 

If he expects to replace Howard's production with more than just Davis it would seem so.....or he signs a vet with decent overall production and subordinates the RB position to later in the draft and/or a couple of UDFAs to compete.

The issue I see with signing another vet is cost. If part of the reason for trading Howard was to avoid paying $2 mil for a #3 RB what decent productive vet can he get for much less?  But is depending on a lesser rookie back worth the money saved?

As for Safety it's much the same.  Bush is in his contract year and HHCD and AH-C are on one year deals.  Logic would say that he'd prioritize drafting a SS this year preparing him to start next year in place of Bush or an unaffordable HHCD.

IMHO it's far more likely he could find that guy with one of his middle picks this year than to be pressed into using a higher pick next year to draft an immediate starter.  At this level of winning we can't risk developing one on the fly like Amos.

These days there's really no predicting what Pace may do.  He's far less predictable now than he was even 2 years ago.

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2 hours ago, soulman said:

If he expects to replace Howard's production with more than just Davis it would seem so.....or he signs a vet with decent overall production and subordinates the RB position to later in the draft and/or a couple of UDFAs to compete.

The issue I see with signing another vet is cost. If part of the reason for trading Howard was to avoid paying $2 mil for a #3 RB what decent productive vet can he get for much less?  But is depending on a lesser rookie back worth the money saved?

As for Safety it's much the same.  Bush is in his contract year and HHCD and AH-C are on one year deals.  Logic would say that he'd prioritize drafting a SS this year preparing him to start next year in place of Bush or an unaffordable HHCD.

IMHO it's far more likely he could find that guy with one of his middle picks this year than to be pressed into using a higher pick next year to draft an immediate starter.  At this level of winning we can't risk developing one on the fly like Amos.

These days there's really no predicting what Pace may do.  He's far less predictable now than he was even 2 years ago.

As to the bolded first--I'm in the minority that thinks trading Howard, especially for next to nothing, was a really bad move. So whatever calculus Pace is doing is over my head (much like REAL calculus! :D)  It's pretty clear he's locked himself into drafting a RB with the third round pick, though. He must have a handful he's satisfied with, and is convinced at least one of them will be there. I suppose he could draft a safety in the following rounds, but I'd imagine he's going to try and hit on linemen. And they're probably gonna draft a kicker, too. 

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