It shouldn't surprise anyone that the Houston Texans are willing to trade the first pick of the second round (No. 33 overall) in the 2014 NFL Draft.
What might be a surprise is that NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reports that the Texans believe a team will want the pick to take a defensive lineman.
Conventional wisdom heading into the draft suggested there would be a run on quarterbacks early in the second round, and there are a lot of second-tier quarterbacks on the board; there also are numerous wide receivers and even some intriguing offensive linemen. But Rapoport reports that teams seemingly are enticed by the defensive linemen still on the board.
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Florida State DT Tim Jernigan, Minnesota DT Ra'Shede Hageman, Missouri DE Kony Ealy, Notre Dame DE Stephon Tuitt and Notre Dame DT Louis Nix III were considered potential first-round picks. Each remains available, and Hageman, Tuitt and maybe even Ealy offer versatility because they are prospects who potentially could play both end and tackle. In addition, Jernigan could be a nose tackle for a 3-4 team.
Other potential second-round linemen are Oregon State end Scott Crichton, LSU tackle Ego Ferguson and North Carolina end Kareem Martin; in addition, edge rushers DeMarcus Lawrence of Boise State, Jeremiah Attaochu of Georgia Tech, Trent Murphy of Stanford and Carl Bradford of Arizona State remain on the board.
In short, there are a plethora of choices for teams looking for linemen and/or edge rushers.
Of the teams that select in the top 10 of the second round, Houston, Oakland (fourth pick in round, 36th overall) and Tennessee (10th pick in round, 42nd overall) would seem to at least be peripherally interested in quarterbacks. Available are Fresno State's Derek Carr, Alabama's A.J. McCarron, Eastern Illinois' Jimmy Garoppolo, LSU's Zach Mettenberger and Pitt's Tom Savage. Given team needs, though, what seems likely is two or three of those guys are going to be chosen later than was anticipated.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
