Gervarrius
Owens.
Gervarrius
Owens.
Houston· 6'0"· 194 lb· 4.57s 40
"A versatile Houston safety drafted for special teams, Owens never stuck with the Giants — the standard fate of a seventh-round defensive back, honestly told rather than dressed up as more."Pre-draft read
Owens plays with energy from the first snap. He is a 6-0 safety with a 37.5-inch vertical and a 10-5 broad jump, and the explosion shows in how quickly he closes downhill on run fits and how much ground he covers rotating from the middle of the field. Houston used him both in the box and at deep safety, and he was useful in both alignments, which is the whole argument for him.
The speed does not match the jumping. He ran 4.57, and against NFL vertical routes that means his recovery window is small once he guesses wrong. His coverage discipline lapses, particularly with his eyes in the backfield, and he misses tackles in space more than a downhill safety should. He is a heat-seeker whose aim is sometimes off.
Single-high or split-safety defense that uses him near the line of scrimmage and leans on him for all four special teams units
Year 1: coverage-unit core and third safety; ceiling: sub-package box defender in run-heavy situations
Deep-third assignment as the last line of defense against vertical passing offenses
The Giants, Titans and Bears have all valued him as a special teams athlete rather than a defensive piece.
The path started at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, where he was a junior college All-American in 2018 with 51 tackles and three interceptions. He arrived at Houston in 2019 and immediately started, putting up 54 tackles and four breakups, then 28 in a shortened 2020, 52 with two interceptions and six breakups in 2021, and a senior season of 74 tackles, three tackles for loss, an interception and eight breakups.
Add it up and you get 259 tackles, seven interceptions and 23 pass breakups across five college seasons. That is a lot of football and a lot of production, even discounting the juco year.
The testing was the surprise: a 9.38 Relative Athletic Score built on explosion rather than speed. Boards still landed on seventh round to priority free agent because of the 4.57 forty, the tackling misses and the coverage lapses, plus the age that comes with a five-year path. The Giants took the athleticism and the special teams résumé at pick 254.
- 01
Explosive lower body
A 37.5-inch vertical and 10-5 broad jump produced a 9.38 RAS and let him play above his listed size.
- 02
Alignment versatility
Houston used him in the box and as a deep-half defender, and he handled the assignments in both roles.
- 03
Massive production volume
Two hundred fifty-nine career tackles and 23 pass breakups across five seasons of starting football.
- 04
Downhill run support
Triggers fast on run keys and arrives with force in the alley, which is his most translatable NFL trait.
- 05
Special teams background
Sustained coverage-unit work in college gave him a clear roster-earning path at the next level.
- 01
Average long speed
A 4.57 forty gives him no margin for error when he guesses wrong on a vertical concept.
- 02
Coverage discipline lapses
His eyes drift into the backfield and he loses track of the deep responsibility behind him.
- 03
Inconsistent tackling in space
He misses too many open-field attempts for a safety whose value is supposed to be run support.
- 04
Older prospect profile
A junior college year plus four seasons at Houston meant less remaining developmental runway.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.57sp50
- Vertical
- 37.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 125inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 15repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (JUCO) | 10 | 51 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| 2019 | Houston | 12 | 54 | 0.5 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 2020 | Houston | 8 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Houston | 13 | 52 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| 2022 | Houston | 12 | 74 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| Career | — | 45 | 208 | 0.5 | 4 | 19 | 0 |
Houston seasons verified against cfbstats. His 2018 line came at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, a junior college, and is flagged separately rather than blended into his FBS totals. Forced fumble data is unverified and omitted.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- NJCAA First-Team All-American (2018, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M)
- Four-year Houston starting safety
- 259 career tackles across juco and FBS
Athletic Day 3 defensive back whose career is practice squads and special teams elevations.
Long, explosive safety whose range and instincts turn him into a full-time NFL starter.
Great testing numbers that never survive contact with NFL coverage responsibilities.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Owens played three games as a rookie in 2023 with one tackle and a fumble recovery before the Giants released him on October 30, 2024. Tennessee signed him to its practice squad on November 5, 2024 and elevated him to the active roster on December 28. Chicago signed him to its practice squad on August 28, 2025 and to a reserve/future contract on January 20, 2026, and he opened the 2026 season on the Bears active roster.
New York never found a role. Owens played three games as a rookie in 2023 with a tackle and a fumble recovery, and the Giants released him on October 30, 2024 before he could establish anything beyond camp value. That is a fast exit even for a seventh-round safety.
What has followed is a working career rather than a failed one. Tennessee signed him to its practice squad on November 5, 2024 and elevated him to the active roster on December 28 for the end of the season; Chicago signed him to its practice squad on August 28, 2025 and then to a reserve/future contract on January 20, 2026. He opened the 2026 season on the Bears active roster wearing number 30. Four years, three organizations, no defensive job that was ever his. The jumping numbers keep getting him camp invitations, the 4.57 keeps ending them, and special teams is the reason he is still employed.