His role and expectations with Texans, a team as a sporting defense to the rise with great depth, will be quite different from the weight and attention of Arnette when he first entered the NFL as a choice of day 1.
Houston is loaded with DB talent and boasts the starting team Derek Stingley Jr., Kamari Lassiter, Jalen Pitre, Calen Bullock and CJ Gardner-Johnson. Arnette will compete for a seat on the roster and will need to win a new group of coaches as a changed individual and a talented contribution.
But like expectations, Arnette is also in a different place in life right now.
“I had to take a look in the mirror,” he said. “I had to make some serious changes in life. And the main thing I did was that I again invited my support system, my foundation, and it’s probably something I will never let go because I see how dangerous it is to try to sail in a new world, a new environment, without experience.
“It hurt my heart, do you know what I’m saying? Because I’m thinking about doing everything right, but obviously I wasn’t because things just kept going to happen and I had no one to teach but myself.
Others have also noticed it.
His former head coach with Raiders, Jon Gruden, told Wilson that he was proud of Arnette for inventing himself.
“He has a whole new self -image,” Gruden said. “He doesn’t look the same. He doesn’t behave the same. He is not the same. He has changed his self -image. He changed the circle of people in his life, in a good way. He is focused. He is determined. He has to make up for some time he lost.”
Arnette’s teammate with Roughnecks, the security of Leon O’Neal Jr., echoed a similar attitude: “Da is a great person.
Years have passed since Arnette last stood in the NFL field, where legal issues took place both before and after his latest game. However, he has got several supporters in his corner and with their accounting took a step while he was away.
He will be in short leash when he returned to the league. He must prove himself on the field as much as with Texans and changed his perspective will play a major role in trying to do so.
“I’m 28 years old now with three kids, with my mom and dad who loves me and has my back now,” said Arnette. “With coaches, I think I have been a perfect turnaround. All the coaches that have been with me now, I feel like their words were more precious because I have said many things in the past. What I would say is what they see on a movie, that’s I’m a commission for three years.
“I’m Dawg on the field. I’m more professional now than I was before. I wasn’t a professional before. I was just Dawg. I found professionalism and a quiet state of mind. I feel like I am the best version of myself.”