In an excruciatingly close vote, Nebraska cornerback Prince Amukamara was the choice of the Battle Red Blog community in their own little mock draft. The process had narrowed things down to Amukamara or Alabama wideout Julio Jones, and with 167 of 326 votes (51%), the readers chose Amukamara to be their pick.
Like most other rumored picks, I'm slowly growing acceptance with the idea of Amukamara roaming the backfield for the Texans next year. Sure, Kareem Jackson was a bust last season, but that doesn't mean Amukamara will be. He's a better prospect than Jackson was. Also, the Texans definitely could use some more bodies at cornerback considering that after Glover Quin, they had absolutely nothing worth playing down the stretch last season.
As far as a first year-impact player? Well, I doubt he's going to do much there for the Texans. Corners often do take a year to acclimate to the NFL If the Texans draft Amukamara and sign a #1 cornerback when free agency starts, that would give them a fairly strong core of defensive backs if Jackson can bounce back from his horrific rookie season.
Of course, if at some point next season the Texans wind up with Amukamara and Jackson both starting, they should probably do the honorable thing and just contract themselves from the league.