Tavierre Thomas had his best season to date with the Houston Texans.
The former 2018 undrafted cornerback from Ferris State, who spent the first three seasons of his career with the Cleveland Browns, started in a career-high eight of 17 games in 2021. Thomas was productive as he collected 86 combined tackles, a tackle for loss, a quarterback hit, two interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown, four pass breakups, and a forced fumble.
However, Thomas is not content to repeat those statistics in his second year with the Texans — he wants more.
“I have a lot of tackles and what not, but personally I just want to get the ball more,” Thomas said. “Start punching the ball out more. That’s going to be my focus, getting the ball.”
Part of Thomas’ motivation is to help the team play effective complementary football. The fifth-year veteran already believes in the concept of second-year quarterback Davis Mills leading the offense.
“If I get the ball and get the ball back to Davis, everyone knows what he is capable of,” said Thomas. “As long as we get him the ball, then we can score points.”
Secondary has been an area of need throughout the offseason for Houston, and the club is likely to add either a highly ranked cornerback or safety in the first three rounds.
Thomas is not anxious who the Texans draft as he expected to have competition for a starting job regardless of where the club allocated its resources.
Said Thomas: “I’ll go in thinking there is competition every day with all the guys. Whoever they bring in, like I said, I’m going to keep my head down, play how I play and listen to [coach] Lovie Smith. The sky is the limit.”
The Texans have been linked to Cincinnati cornerback Ahmad Gardner and LSU cornerback Derek Stingley.
[listicle id=73324]