Chris Houston: Should the Detroit Lions' CB Stay or Go?

It's time for me to stop running from the offseason.

Given how well the regular season ended for the Detroit Lions, this was the first year in a long while that I didn't want to forget all about football season the day after Week 17 ended.

Sure, the Lions missed the playoffs by a wide margin. There was never much doubt of that, though. But a four-game winning streak? Unprecedented! I wanted to savor the flavor as long as I could,  but now it's time to look ahead.

Thus begins the first in my new "Stay or Go?" series, an in-depth look at the Lions' upcoming free agents and whether the Lions and the player should look to re-sign with the Lions based on performance, team interest, player interest and miscellaneous factors (such as possible replacements in the draft or free agency, trade value, player comments, etc).

We start with cornerback Chris Houston.

2010 Performance

Nobody was mistaking Houston for a Pro Bowler this year.

But nobody was mistaking Houston for Anthony Henry or Philip Buchanon, either.

Houston is blessed with all the physical skills to play his position: speed, agility, footwork. That amounts to him having "potential."

What he doesn't have is the ability to turn his head and make a play on the ball. It was an issue for him coming in, and he finished the season with 13 pass defenses and one interception in 15 games.

The 13 pass defenses ties him for 42nd among defensive backs. It also ties him with Alphonso Smith, who played three less games and had four more interceptions.

Still, he covered his receivers fairly well as a whole, and he did a good job of keeping plays in front of him. He also proved to be a decent tackler for a cornerback. With better ball skills, he could be elite.

Team Interest

"We don't know what [Houston's] contract status is, whether we have the ability to tender him or not. We're preparing to tender him or deal with him and make him an offer. That's a guy we definitely want back."

- Lions GM Martin Mayhew, in the Oakland Press

The Lions should be interested in Houston, if only for the sake of consistency.

In a secondary that changed almost every week, Houston and Louis Delmas were the only sure things. Each of them started 15 of 16 games with Houston missing only the season finale.

No other player in the secondary started more than 10 games. Four ended the season on injured reserve. Houston should be a guy the Lions can count on, week in and week out.

The problem is, count on him to do what, exactly? Houston will be looking for a big payday, because corners in their mid-20's who hit the market get paid.

Are the Lions willing to sign a fat contract for a guy whose potential is still a question mark?

Despite what they say, it's not likely. With promising Alphonso Smith in the fold, preseason wonderboy Aaron Berry looking to play more than half a game next season and the possibility of LSU's Patrick Peterson on the horizon, the Lions might be more interested in moving forward unless Houston wants a paycut.

Regardless, it was still worth the sixth-round pick it took to rent the guy for a year.

Player Interest

It's all going to be about the Benjamins for Houston.

Houston isn't good enough to have teams lining up to break their banks over him, but he should earn a good living for the next four or five years.

The question, though, is who? There's no doubt Houston will land somewhere, but it's hard to say where. Houston's skill level is somewhere between that of a No. 1 and No. 2 cornerback, and teams could come at him with offers to become either.

He'll make more money if he finds a team that wants to make him the top guy (perhaps the Jacksonville Jaguars with their 28th-ranked pass defense), but it's more likely he finds a team willing to pay him fairly well to play No. 2 or enter a battle for the top spot.

Would the Lions be willing to pay that man and bring him back for the No. 1 spot? If so, it might be Houston's best option.

Miscellaneous Factors

Martin Mayhew seemed like he could throw a dart and find a productive defensive back this year.

Aaron Berry, Randy Phillips, Paul Pratt, Nathan Vasher, John Wendling, Prince Miller, all of them played productive minutes for the Lions this year, and all of them were signed off the street.

That's to say nothing of the junk heap trade of Dan Gronkowski for Alphonso Smith on roster cut day.

Both players were going to be cut by their teams, so Detroit and Denver worked out a trade. 16 games later, Gronkowski has eight catches from the tight end position, and Smith has five from the cornerback position. Smith also leads in touchdowns.

With this kind of young talent at the position, plus a draft full of strong CB prospects (which could be signed cheaper and with more upside as the 13th overall pick than what Houston is likely to ask for), it doesn't seem likely that these two will be seeing much more of one another.

The most interesting story here is going to be who offers Houston a job in the offseason and whether the Lions match it. Houston has said he wants to try free agency, Mayhew has said he wants Houston back.

The most likely scenario is Houston rejecting any deals for now, trying his hand in free agency and then the Lions deciding whether they want to compete with the field to re-sign him.