Texans select Stanford safety Justin Reid in third round

HOUSTON (AP) - Justin Reid might have a leg up on most rookies when he joins the Houston Texans after spending years learning about the NFL from his brother Eric, a first-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 2013.

"We break down film together, I go and visit him at his house," Justin Reid said. "We watched games together. He would let me in on what the game plan was that week, how they're playing certain personnel."

The elder Reid is a safety who spent the last five seasons with the 49ers, but is currently a free agent. Justin, a safety from Stanford, followed in his brother's footsteps when Houston took him with the 68th overall pick in the draft on Friday night.

General manager Brian Gaine said they valued the football pedigree in his family, but were more impressed by his other qualities.

"What I'll tell you about Justin is No. 1 (he has) the prototypical body type, height, weight, speed for the position," Gaine said. "No. 2 production, graded well in terms of production. No. 3 was the versatility, interchangeable ability to play strong safety, free safety, the ability to play the run, the ability to play the pass. We feel like he's a fully dimensional safety at the position."

Reid was Houston's first pick in this year's draft after the Texans traded away their first-round pick to Cleveland to get quarterback Deshaun Watson with the 12th overall pick last year. They previously sent their second-round pick in this draft to the Browns as part of the deal to get rid of Brock Osweiler.

The draft was Gaine's first as a general manager after taking over in January when Rick Smith took an indefinite leave of absence to be with his wife, who is fighting cancer. But Gaine has plenty of experience in scouting and player evaluations, having worked as assistant general manager for the Dolphins and in player personnel for the Texans and the Bills.

He talked about having to wait through two rounds before making his first pick with the Texans.

"Unique circumstance, 20 years of doing this, I've never had that experience before," he said. "But in a way after yesterday it allowed us to kind of reposition ourselves and think about what's already occurred and kind of measure the supply and demand at the positions with 32 players already gone."

Reid started 11 of 14 games last season, piling up 99 tackles, including 6 1/2 for losses with five interceptions and six pass breakups.

Houston addressed its need on the offensive line by taking Mississippi State tackle Martinas Rankin with the 80th pick. The 6-foot-4, 308-pound Rankin is a versatile player who has lined up at almost every position on the offensive line, but spent the most time at left tackle. He'll have a chance to play early, competing with Julie'n Davenport for the chance to protect Watson's blind side at left tackle.

"We see him as an offensive lineman and hopefully the best five play however that unravels here," Gaine said. "But naturally he was a starting left tackle in the SEC so my hope is he'd have the ability to do that, but we also believe that if he has to play guard, right side, left side, wherever we need him that this guy has the versatility to do that."

The Texans used their last pick Friday night to address another need when they chose Central Florida tight end Jordan Akins at No. 98. At 26, the 6-3, 249-pound Akins is much older than most NFL rookies after spending four years playing minor league baseball after being drafted by the Texas Rangers in the third round in 2010.

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