Texans trade CB/special teamer Keion Crossen to Giants for sixth-round pick

On a day where a bunch of bottom-of-the-roster guys are getting let go as NFL teams trim their rosters to 85 players, the Texans and Giants made time to work out a deal.

Houston is sending cornerback Keion Crossen to New York, a source told Doug Kyed of Pro Football Focus (Twitter link). In exchange the Giants will send back a 2023 sixth-round pick, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network tweets. Crossen originally entered the league as a seventh-round pick of the Patriots in 2018. He won Super Bowl LIII with the team but was traded to the Texans the following August.

Although he’s a cornerback and actually started four games on defense for Houston this past year, he’s mostly known as a special teams standout. As many were quick to point out, Giants head coach Joe Judge was Crossen’s special teams coordinator his rookie season in New England.

His first two years as a pro he was almost exclusively a special teams guy, but last season he was pressed into some action for an undermanned Houston defense and finished with 46 tackles and five passes defended.