Cornerback Damon Arnette, a former first-round pick who is trying to resurrect his career, has signed with the Houston Texans. The Green Bay Packers were interested, according to NFL insider Aaron Wilson.
Arnette was the 19th pick in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. He started seven of his nine appearances as a rookie and played in four games in 2021.
The Raiders released him in November 2021 after a viral video in which Arnette held multiple guns and threatened to kill someone. Before the video, he reportedly crashed four rental cars in a month and was the subject of a lawsuit after allegedly crashing into a woman’s car.
Arnette spent the last couple weeks of the 2021 season on the Dolphins’ practice squad. After the season, he signed a futures contract with the Chiefs but lasted only about a week after running afoul of the law again.
In December 2024, Arnette got a chance to reboot his career with the UFL’s Houston Roughnecks.
“I’m 28 years old right now with three kids, with a mom and dad that loves me and has my back right now,” Arnette told Wilson, who works for Houston TV station KPRC. “With coaches, I feel like I’ve proved a complete turnaround. All the coaches that have been with me right now, I feel like their words would be more valuable because I’ve said a lot of things in the past. What I would say is what they see on film, that’s me being out of commission for three years,
“I’m a dawg on the field. I’m more of a professional now than I ever was before. I wasn’t a professional before. I was just a dawg. I found professionalism and a calm state of mind. I feel like I’m the best version of myself that I’ve ever been.”
Arnette would have been a bit of a Hail Mary, though Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley was Ohio State’s co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach when Arnette was a senior in 2019.
The Packers are short on proven cornerbacks. They are heading to training camp with Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs and Carrington Valentine as their projected starting corners. No other cornerback on the roster played a snap of defense in the NFL last season.
While the Packers added Hobbs in free agency and Micah Robinson in the seventh round, they released Jaire Alexander and let Eric Stokes, Corey Ballentine and Robert Rochell leave in free agency. The chase for backup roles includes three late-round picks, former sixth-rounders Kamal Hadden and Gregory Junior and former seventh-round pick Kalen King. Everyone else on the roster went undrafted.
Arnette in 13 career games had zero interceptions and three passes defensed. Sports Info Solutions charged him with a 72.7 percent completion rate for his career.
With the Roughnecks, PFF charged him with a 50.0 percent completion rate. He intercepted one pass.
The UFL’s executive vice president of football operations, Daryl Johnston, denied Arnette’s request to play in the league last season. This year, he gave Arnette the opportunity.
“If you want this opportunity, we’re going to give you time to show you deserve it,” Johnston told Wilson. “The first time I met him, his appearance even, you see a completely different Damon Arnette. Very professional. He was remorseful for everything that happened. …
“The football part is the easy part. He’s a first-round draft pick. Athletic ability will only take you so far. Your knowledge and passion for the game has to be present every day. That’s what will allow us to say when the NFL asks us about Damon Arnette and what our thoughts are on him, about his growth as a man. In the NFL, they won’t wait for you. They will just move on. You need to not just be a good football player, you need to be a good man.”
At Ohio State, Arnette had five career interceptions. As a senior, he had one interception – a 96-yard pick-six – and eight additional breakups. He allowed a 38 percent catch rate with a 54.0 rating, according to SIS.
Before the draft, he said: “That dog in me that I had in me, that’s who I feel like I am now instead of being him sometimes. I am smarter and I’m more mature on and off the field. I feel like overall I’m just more ready now than I was last year. … I’ve never gotten arrested, I’ve never had an abuse charge or anything like that so character concerns, I feel like that word is just used real loosely when you really think of what character concerns really are.”
At the 2020 Scouting Combine, he measured 5-foot-11 5/8. He ran his 40 in 4.56 seconds and had 30-inch arms.
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