If I could have anyone free of charge in this free agency class guaranteed it would be Bouye for me. I think he's the next big thing at CB. Hoping minimal experience with Wade Phillips is enough to lure him to the Rams.
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/02/23/aj-bouye-nfl-free-agents-houston-texans
The King of the Free Agent Class is Named A.J. Bouye
The undrafted cornerback stunned the Texans with his 2016 production and now leads a group of relative unknowns about to cash in on the open market.
by Albert Breer
Photo: Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images
Believe it or not, Texans (for now) cornerback A.J. Bouye is eyeing a somewhat moderate purchase for March 9, when the figurative Brinks truck will show up in his driveway with a decidedly less moderate prize.
“Only thing I can think of is a truck with TVs in it,” Bouye said from his cellphone on Wednesday afternoon. “Then my daughter won’t have to scream at me because she doesn’t have her headphones in. She watches ‘Frozen’ two times a day. It’d be good just to let her watch that in the truck in peace.”
You can forgive the free agent-to-be if he’s still getting used to all this. After all, as recently as Oct. 2, Bouye was the fourth corner on his own team, coming off the bench to play just 37 percent of the Texans’ defensive snaps in a narrow win over the Titans, stuck behind a trio of former first-round picks at the position.
Just five months later, he’s likely to elicit a slew of “WOW” tweets and money-bag emojis when he becomes this year’s largely anonymous player to get filthy rich.
When I asked one AFC personnel man what Bouye would command in two weeks, the answer was a question: “What did Janoris Jenkins get again?” Another AFC personnel chief added, “Bouye will be the clear king of the class, assuming the guys we believe will be franchised actually are.”
And yes, “the king of the class” is as wide-eyed about this as you may be reading it.
“I was undrafted, and looking at who was in front of me before injuries happened it looked like a no-win situation,” Bouye says now. “When you have all those first-rounders in front of you, you’re just trying to take advantage of every opportunity. So I didn’t really envision this happening.”
In 2013 coming out of Central Florida, Bouye wasn’t invited to the scouting combine, then badly pulled a hamstring two weeks before his pro day. A cortisone shot and wrap to treat it weren’t enough to prevent a 4.5 40-yard dash there, which he suspects led to him slipping out of the draft all together.
Bouye wound up signing with Houston, which already had Johnathan Joseph and Kareem Jackson on the roster. He reinjured the hamstring his rookie year, landed on IR that October, and bounced back with a solid 2014. But just four months after that season, the Texans drafted another corner, Kevin Johnson, in the first round.
In fact, if it weren’t for injuries to Jackson and Joseph in October, Bouye might never have gotten an extended look as a starter in Houston. But once that door opened, Bouye didn’t let it shut. He became the No. 1 corner and one of the best players on the NFL’s best defense, in on 296 of 298 snaps from Week 12 to Week 16 and every one of the Texans’ defensive snaps in the playoffs.
“All that [I went through] instilled something in me, it gave me a chip on my shoulder,” Bouye says. “When you’re a first-rounder, you have way more room to make mistakes, people make excuses for you, saying you’re growing or you’re learning. But as an undrafted guy, you have to be perfect.”
The Texans know the score here. Again, they’ve invested a lot at the position, and they aren’t one of those teams with tens of millions of cap dollars in wiggle room. Tagging him, as Bouye has been informed, would be difficult, with the corner figure expected to land well over $14 million.
“I talked to my agent, and I’m not mad that they probably won’t franchise me, just because of how much the franchise tag is for a corner,” Bouye said. “It’s a lot. At the same time, the situation in Houston, money-wise, there’s no telling what’s going to happen. At the end of the day, I know they want to bring me back, but they have other things they have to address, which I totally understand.”
With that established, the coaches and front office people in Houston are happy for a player whom most there describe as self-made, no matter where Bouye lands.
They all saw how he took advantage of the coaching of coordinator Romeo Crennel and secondary coach John Butler and assistant Anthony Midget, and the competitive environment with the well-pedigreed teammates in his position group.
They saw him beg to cover DeAndre Hopkins in practice, even after he became a starter. And they watched him get stronger and more confident, evident in how he now recognizes routes and challenges throws.
As one staffer said simply, “A.J. just constantly wanted to improve.”
The payoff came in his play. As Bouye sees it, that will continue to be the payoff here, and all that money coming March 9 is the bonus. So yeah, he has some plans. He’ll probably get that truck.
His dad—a former correctional officer who was once responsible for guarding/transporting John Gotti, T.I. and Mike Vick—had spinal surgery last year, so Bouye can help there. And he’ll probably throw some cash at the AAU team his dad works with, too.
But mostly, the plan is keep his foot in that door that swung open in October.
“Now that the time is around the corner, I need to start thinking about it, I can’t keep avoiding it,” he says with a laugh. “So it’s really just on what’s gonna happen with where I end up.
Where am I gonna live? What team? What type of teammates? Really that’s it, because I know in the end I’m gonna be the same person.”
