Tag: Gareon Conley

Former Ohio State football star is back in the NFL

Former Ohio State star is back in the NFL #GoBucks

The inaugural season of the United Football League is complete and by most accounts it was a great success. A big reason for thie league is to help football players continue their professional careers and hopefully get a shot back in the NFL.

One former Buckeye made the most of his opportunity with the D.C. Defenders this season and has now earned a contract with the Dallas Cowboys. Gareon Conley was a phenomenal defensive back during his Ohio State days and parlayed that success into becoming a first round selection by the Oakland Raiders. He struggled with injuries and was eventually traded to the Houston Texans. He again struggled to stay on the field and was out of the NFL.

Conley had a great season with D.C. in the UFL and at only 28 years old still has plenty of time to turn his career around. It is unreasonable to expect him to live up to his first round selection, but Conley has all of the skills to be a consistent contributor for Dallas.

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Josh Keatley on X.

 

Former Raiders first round pick Gareon Conley signs with Cowboys

Raiders former first round pick signs resurfaces with Cowboys

We’ve got a Gareon Conley sighting. Today the Cowboys signed Conley to the team’s offseason roster.

Conley is most notable as having been selected by the Raiders with the 24th overall pick in the 2017 draft. Then lasting just three seasons in the NFL before flaming out.

He lost his rookie season almost entirely with a mysterious ankle injury that GM Reggie McKenzie famously referred to as “shin splints” and then Conley infamously said was “fake news”.

His second season he started 14 games and had three interceptions. Then midway through his third season, he was traded to the Texans. He would last just eight games in Houston. He was placed in injured reserve prior to the start of the 2020 season and never played another down in the NFL.

He is widely considered one of the biggest busts among Raiders more recent first round picks.

Most recently Conley played in the UFL for the DC Defenders. He is still just 28 years of age.

Cowboys sign former Raiders 1st-round pick after UFL stint

From @ToddBrock24f7: Gareon Conley won a national title with Ohio State in 2014 and spent 23 games as a Raider. Now a UFL veteran, he’ll join the Cowboys.

The Cowboys completed a second signing on Tuesday, adding another UFL player to its ranks with a little over a month to go before training camp.

Cornerback Gareon Conley has come to terms with the team, as first reported by Patrik Walker of dallascowboys.com. News of his signing comes just hours after linebacker Willie Harvey Jr. inked a deal with the club.

Conley was a first-round draft pick of the Raiders in 2017. The former Ohio State Buckeye, who had won a college national championship as a redshirt freshman, played 23 games for the silver and black, making 20 starts and logging four interceptions over three seasons. Houston traded for him midway through the 2019 season, but Conley played just eight games with the Texans and then spent most of 2020 on injured reserve after a serious ankle injury.

He logged two interceptions this spring for the UFL’s DC Defenders.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

Conley was one of four UFL players- including Harvey- to work out for the Cowboys last week. He’ll join a talented- and somewhat crowded- cornerbacks group led by Trevon Diggs, DaRon Bland, and Jourdan Lewis.

Veteran special teams ace C.J. Goodwin, Nahshon Wright, Eric Scott Jr., Josh Butler, UDFA Josh DeBerry, and fifth-round draft pick Caelen Carson will also be in the mix at the position when the team reconvenes in Oxnard, Calif.

The 28-year-old Conley comes in with some familiarity with at least one of his Cowboys coaches. His defensive coordinator with the Raiders in 2018 and 2019 was Paul Guenther; Guenther is now the Cowboys’ defensive run game coordinator.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01j0p06f8wps7c3z8b1n playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01j0p06f8wps7c3z8b1n/01j0p06f8wps7c3z8b1n-45141f8e3216ca51d4ca1dd56fc6e85b.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]

Cowboys work out 4 UFL defenders, including 2 former 1st-round draft picks

From @ToddBrock24f7: CBs Deandre Baker and Gareon Conley were 1st-round picks in the NFL. Their workouts Tuesday could be the first step toward a comeback bid.

Cowboys management loves to say that player evaluation happens 365 days a year. What they never mention is that some of those days are slightly busier than others.

Tuesday was one of those days. The team hosted four defensive players from the UFL- DC Defenders cornerback Deandre Baker, DC Defenders cornerback Gareon Conley, Michigan Panthers linebacker Noah Dawkins, and St. Louis Battlehawks linebacker Willie Harvey Jr.- for workouts at The Star in Frisco as the team prepares for training camp in late July.

All have at least some level of experience with NFL clubs; two of them were first-round draft picks at one point before their careers took a detour.

Baker was taken in the first round of the 2019 draft by the Giants. A Jim Thorpe Award winner and consensus All-American at Georgia, New York actually traded up to get him. But an arrest before his second season landed him on the commissioner’s exempt list, and the Giants waived him shortly thereafter. He made the Chiefs practice squad toward the end of the 2020 season and got back onto the field in late 2021, but a broken femur cut his comeback bid short. 2024 was his first year back in football; he was named to the inaugural All-UFL Team.

Conley was a first-round draft pick of the Raiders in 2017. The former Ohio State Buckeye played 23 games for the silver and black, making 20 starts and logging four interceptions over three seasons. The Houston Texans traded for him midway through the 2019 season, but he played just eight games with the club and spent most of 2020 on injured reserve. He logged two interceptions for the 4-6 Defenders this spring.

Dawkins was impressive enough coming out of The Citadel to be ranked in Mel Kiper Jr.’s Top 300 in 2019, but he went undrafted. He spent that summer in camp with the Bengals, then signed with Tampa Bay. After one season, he joined the Jets, where he stayed through the 2021 season. After a camp stint with Chicago in 2022, he moved to the USFL’s Panthers. This spring, he recorded 38 tackles for 7-3 Michigan under former Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Nolan.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

Harvey was an undrafted free agent out of Iowa State in 2019 and spent three seasons in the Browns organization. This spring was his second season with the Battlehawks and his league-leading 76 tackles earned him an All-UFL nod.

Per the team website, the Cowboys currently have just two open roster spots with about six weeks to go before training camp opens in Oxnard, Calif.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01j047znezqxadfzn4t8 playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01j047znezqxadfzn4t8/01j047znezqxadfzn4t8-346b507ca20b30fffa04babe9d84c862.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]

Former Ohio State football star signs with XFL

A former Ohio State star gets an opportunity in the #XFL. #GoBucks

The XFL 3.0 just ended its first season and it was an extreme success. It saw two former Ohio State football players really shine when given an opportunity in the upstart league with Rod Smith starting for the Vegas Vipers and Antwuan Jackson for the Seattle Sea Dragons.

Jackson shined so bright he was actually able to parlay that opportunity into an NFL shot with the Carolina Panthers, which is ultimately the goal for most of these players. The XFL, which is owned by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, has announced that there will be a season in 2024. The league is already beginning the process of adding free agents.

One of the largest free agents of note for the D.C. Defenders is former Ohio State cornerback, Gareon Conley. The former All-Big Ten defensive back has not had the smoothest NFL career. After being drafted in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders, Conley was not horrible, but not at the quality of a first-round selection. As a result, they elected to trade him to the Houston Texans in 2019.

Conley was again OK in Houston — he continued to deal with some injuries and his final season in the NFL was in 2020. He is still only 28 years old and has some juice left in the football tank, so getting another shot in the XFL appears to be an ideal situation. But he did not seem sold on the situation according to his X account, formerly known as Twitter.

I’m unsure why Conley has labeled the situation as “complex,” but we wish him good luck.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow Josh Keatley on Twitter.

Should the Texans bring back CB Gareon Conley?

The Houston Texans have decisions to make at cornerback, and one of them is whether or not to re-sign Gareon Conley.

The Houston Texans have a bevy of roster decisions to make as the new regime attempts to recovery from a disappointing, franchise-altering 4-12 finish from a year ago.

One of those decisions will be what to do with cornerback Gareon Conley, who spent the entire 2020 campaign rehabilitating from an ankle surgery in the offseason.

According to Pro Football Focus, Conley, who is ranked at No. 90 among their top 101 free agents, ought to get another shot with the Texans, preferably with a one-year contract worth $2.5 with a cool million guaranteed.

A former first-round pick, Conley has had his ups and downs, grading out at 64.5 and 64.0 in his two full seasons. He missed all of the 2020 season. Conley is better in man coverage, as he’s graded in the 69th percentile in single coverage compared to just the 37th percentile in zone since entering the league. He’s also forced incompletions on 22.2% of his targets, the second-best rate in the NFL since 2017. Conley is worth a look in a man-heavy system. 

If Conley isn’t a fit for Lovie Smith’s new defensive scheme, the Tampa-2, then he won’t get another shot in Houston. The Texans may have to use free agency and the draft to upgrade the position and find the players that work best in the new defensive system.

[listicle id=58960]

6 potentially inexpensive free agent candidates for the Cardinals

The Cardinals may not have a ton of cap room this offseason – here are six players that could help and not cost a ton of cap space.

The Arizona Cardinals enter the NFL offseason without a lot of money to spend on free agency. They do not have that much cap space. That could change with a few moves, but those may or may not happen, and there are a few holes the Cardinals could look to fill.

Since they might not be able to target many higher-priced free agents, here are some potentially less expensive free agents they could target next month.


Texans’ Romeo Crennel says the 2020 debut of CB Gareon Conley is ‘doubtful’

Houston Texans interim coach Romeo Crennel is not confident that cornerback Gareon Conley will make his 2020 debut.

The Houston Texans had one of the best cornerback tandems on paper going into the 2020 season with Gareon Conley on one side and Bradley Roby on the other.

Quarterbacks would have to choose their own adventure in throwing against Conley’s lockdown skills or Roby’s playmaking ability.

On the gridiron in 2020, Conley has yet to play a game due to a lingering ankle injury, and Roby has been suspended for the final five games of the season due to a violation of the NFL’s performance enhancing drug policy.

Interim coach Romeo Crennel did not sound confident that Conley will play in the last month of the season.

“Well, he will not be back this game,” Crennel said. “Chances are if the injury hasn’t made the kind of progress that it needs to make for him to be back now, it might be doubtful that he’ll come back. So, that’s what it is.”

The Texans will have to platoon it at cornerback with Vernon Hargreaves, Phillip Gaines, Keion Crossen, and rookie John Reid. They may also get help at cornerback with safeties Eric Murray and Lonnie Johnson, who was originally drafted as a corner in the second round in 2020.

Texans still uncertain when cornerback Garoney Conley will make 2020 debut

The Houston Texans still do not know when cornerback Gareon Conley will make his 2020 debut.

The Houston Texans had a great cornerback situation on paper heading into the 2020 season.

Bradley Roby was going to be the playmaker on one side, and Gareon Conley was going to provide a lockdown presence on the other. Opposing quarterbacks were going to have to choose their own adventure when dropping back and going against Houston’s top-two cornerbacks.

An offseason ankle surgery derailed Conley’s plans, and now the former 2017 Oakland Raiders first-round pick from Ohio State is struggling to see the field in 2020.

Secondary coach D’Anton Lynn has no timetable for Conley’s debut.

“I wish I could tell you,” Lynn said. “That’s definitely a better question for the trainers. I know in my talks with Gareon, he is frustrated. He is working. But really that’s up to God at this point; it’s in God’s hands. He’s doing everything he can on his end. I know the trainers are, too. Everybody is frustrated.”

The Texans have had to find other options opposite of Roby. Vernon Hargreaves has stepped up and started seven games for the Texans. However, when injuries affect Houston, they are no longer pulling from the depths of their cornerback reserve.

In Week 7’s 35-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers, Roby injured his ankle and knee on the first series, and the Texans inserted Phillip Gaines to cover receiver Davante Adams man-to-man. The three-time Pro Bowler torched the Texans with 13 catches for 196 yards and two touchdowns.

Maybe it would have been different if Conley were available for that game.

“Obviously it has affected our defense,” Lynn said. “He’s a guy we counted on coming into the season to be one of our core players in the secondary. I think we saw what he was capable of doing last year, and we expected a jump in play coming into this year, just now having knowledge of the system.

“Any time you lose a starting-caliber corner before the season even starts, it’s obviously difficult.”

The Texans will have to find other solutions apart from Conley as the 25-year-old works his way onto the field.

Texans CB Gareon Conley still not close to returning to the secondary

The Houston Texans are not close to having cornerback Gareon Conley return to the playing field.

Cornerback Gareon Conley is still not close to returning to the playing field for the Houston Texans.

The former 2017 Oakland Raiders first-round pick has been recovering from offseason ankle surgery that has complicated his return to the playing field.

“He’s trying to get back but I don’t think that he’s where we need him to be right now,” interim coach Romeo Crennel said. “He’s had second opinions and they haven’t been able to pinpoint anything definite. We’ll have to see how he does and if he can get back.”

Conley provided Houston with 27 tackles and 11 pass breakups in eight games last season, starting in two of them. The Texans could really use his talents in Week 7 as cornerbacks Vernon Hargreaves and Lonnie Johnson are dealing with injuries following the Texans’ 42-36 overtime loss to the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium.

“I think Vernon got banged in the knee a little bit,” Crennel said. “We’ll have to see what they say about that and then Lonnie kind of got kicked in the face. I think that they’re checking him out.”

Phillip Gaines played one snap for the Texans against the Titans. Houston needs their best cornerbacks on the field to tighten up their pass coverage, and having Conley unavailable has been a hinderance.