Happy April, everybody. I hope you survived Lie To Your Friends Day with no mishaps. Alas, the Titans picked Wednesday to dive once more into the free agent market, signing former Houston Texans CB DeMarcus Faggins to a 2-year contract per The Tenneessean and the Nashville City Paper. The official site doesn’t yet have confirmation, but Kuharsky seems to think the report is legitimate, so I’ll pretend it is.
DeMarcus “Petey” Faggins played in all 16 games for the Texans for the second straight year and made 5 starts after 8 in 2007. He had 28 tackles, down from 46, and matched his 2007 total (and mine) with 0 interceptions. In terms of coverage stats Pro Football Prospectus 2008 has him at allowing 9.1 adjusted yards per attempt and a 44% stop rate in 2007. To put those numbers in context, that’s pretty bad. If you have a copy of the 2007 game in Houston when the Titans put up 38 points, look for passs throw to wide receivers, and note how often Faggins was in coverage. The Titans went 3 WR a lot that game exactly so they could force the Texans to play nickel and then threw to the slot WR covered by Faggins. If you doubt what I’m saying, just check out what Texans fans are saying: “multiplication by subtraction” and “How long did it take you to find a picture of Petey where he wasn’t ten yards behind the wide receiver?”
As to where he fits, Kuharsky’s speculation is a strong training camp by Cary Williams could see Faggins not making the roster. To me, the 2-year contract indicates that this is somebody who’ll have a good chance at making the roster and Cary Williams is a second year player instead of a “proven veteran” of the sort Fisher has shown affection for in the past. It’s probably better than bringing back Reynaldo Hill, but if only for novelty’s sake and then not by much.
Sorry I had to come back with such a downer post, but there’s not a lot positive to say about Faggins’ demonstrated level of football playing ability, nor does there appear to be much untapped potential for quality. I did like the Nate Washington signing, though.
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