The Houston Texans finished the 2024 season with a 10-7 record and made the playoffs for the second straight year. And they won their division for the second straight year. And anytime you can go from the number pick 2 in the draft and ultimately winning a week 18 game to lose a critical draft pick in the final week of the 2022 season the way the Texans did – and seemingly one of the worst situations in football – to back to back division titles – you would think it’s mostly sunshine rainbows. And in some ways it is – as they have not one – but two playoff wins in the CJ Stroud era. And good for them. Texans fans truly went through it all between 2020 and the time CJ Stroud arrived. But that doesn’t fix everything. And at this particular point in time – I have a lot of concerns with the Houston Texans – and more specifically – the way they’re building their football team. Now I do want to preface – that they are doing a lot of things right as a franchise and that I’m not predicting their down fall or anything like that – not even close. But in terms of building a championship caliber football team and taking the next step as a franchise – this is where I have concern with the Texans. And in today’s video we’re going to break everything down. And there is a lot to break down so without further ado – let’s begin.
And we are starting today’s video by discussing the Texans offense and discussing what went right and what went wrong in 2024. I think one of the biggest surprises in 2024 was how good Joe Mixon was in his first year with the team. He had over 1,300 total yards in 14 games and had 7 100 yard rushing games. And I know this is kind of nitpicking here to make Joe look even better – but he didn’t play much in the regular season finale – as he only had 5 carries for 23 yards – so my point is – he was a really good player for Houston in 2024. And obviously with the Texans success in 2023 – and even with them winning a playoff game over the Browns during the 2023 playoffs – the hype entering the 2024 season was going to create lofty expectations – especially when the Texans traded for multiple time pro bowler Stefon Diggs in the process. Now one thing I do want to note specifically about the Texans from last year – is – you cannot control injury. Stefon Diggs only played 8 games for the Texans before sustaining a season ending injury as he tore his ACL, and unfortunately Tank Dell had a severe knee injury near the end of the season – that is expected to keep him out for most – if not all – of the 2025 season. And I genuinely feel bad for Tank Dell as he’s had a tremendously tough stretch in each of his first two seasons – and I wish him the best. Nico Collins also missed some time during the 2024 season as he played in 12 of 17 games and the point is – injuries are going to happen. You can’t control that. But what you can control is the wall you build around your quarterback. Now I don’t want to get too much into the Laremy Tunsil discussion because there is 4 other positions along the offensive line and the Texans offensive line success does not solely rely on Laremy Tunsil not being a Texan in 2025. I will note that he was credited with 19 penalties during the 2024 season – and that’s per PFF – and he had 6 penalties in the Minnesota game in week 3 alone. And there was a point in that game where the Texans had 3rd and 4 in field goal range – but they committed 3 straight false start penalties to push it back to 3rd and 19 – one of which was on Tunsil – then Tunsil committed an illegal formation penalty and Houston had to punt the ball away. If you want to replace a player who committed seemingly a drive killing penalty per game – that also had questions about effort at times – then go for it. But I do have questions about guys like a 33 year old Laken Tomlinson – who is probably serviceable at best – and I definitely have questions about a 32 year old Trent Brown who is coming off of a torn patellar tendon which is in the knee. Now I’m not going to pretend I’m a doctor and I’m definitely not going to pretend that I know how Trent is doing in recovery – but to have him slated to be the starting right tackle at the moment – coming off of a year in which CJ Stroud struggled – due in large to the offensive line and a revolving door at receiver – is concerning to me at this point in time. Cam Robinson is slated to be the left tackle and everyone talks about Sam Darnold’s struggles in week 18 and ultimately the wild card round for Minnesota last year – but Cam Robinson struggled just as much – if not more. He had 101 pass blcoking snaps between week 18 and the wild card round – and he allowed 21 pressures in two games – which is awful. And for reference – he had allowed just 18 pressures on his previous 259 pass blocking snaps in the 7 games leading up to the week 18 game against Detroit and the wild card game against Los Angeles. All of this to say – I know there were some Texans fans upset about the idea of trading away Laremy Tunsil – and I get it – but I have a lot more concerns with this team and ultimately this offensive line – before Laremy Tunsil is even factored in
Now when we talk about the divisions teams are in – we usually talk about how the other elite teams in the division could – or in some cases do – hinder teams progress because of how much of a road block they are to get around. And I look at a team like the Browns who are in a division with the Bengals and Ravens and can only try to fathom how much of a pain in the rear end it will be to have to play Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson for a quarter of your schedule for effectively the next 6 to 7 years – and possibly even longer. But the AFC south isn’t like that as the quarterbacks outside of CJ Stroud at the moment are Trevor Lawrence, Anthony Richardson and or Daniel Jones, and we might as well say Cam Ward. Trevor Lawrence himself is another good example of a guy not living up to the expectations he once had and I’m not entirely out on Trevor Lawrence and think that he’s a draft bust or anything out of the ordinary like that – but I also think it’s fair to say he has been a disappointing player from what the Jags were expecting when they drafted him out of Clemson back in 2021. Obviously Trevor was set up to fail in 2021 but players have bad rookie seasons and I am a firm believer that if you were that good to begin with – you could over come a bad season – even as bad as 2021 was with Urban Meyer and the horrific receiving core he had – and be the guy you were expected to be. And in 2022 with Doug Pederson – they won a playoff game which was the start of what was to be expected from Trevor Lawrence and the Jags. But things turned south for Jacksonville after starting out 8-3 in 2023 and they fired Doug Pederson after going just 4-13 in 2024 and we’ll see how things go with new head coach Liam Coen. Indy obviously has their problems with Anthony Richardson and we’ve dove into those problems several times on the channel – but my biggest thing with Indy is – I don’t think they’re going to beat the Texans when it matters based on where they are currently – especially with how good the Texans defense is. I’m not going to spend too much time on Tennessee because they are clearly rebuilding and you don’t accidentally stumble into the number one overall pick and while I do like Cam Ward as a prospect – I do not think the situation he is walking into as a rookie is great especially from a receiving standpoint. And I know you may be thinking – these aren’t bad things for the Texans especially given they are in a bad division and they can very easily 3 peat to win the AFC South to start CJ Stroud’s career. But one of the biggest things I worry about with the Texans specifically – is – as simple as this question is – how do we get to the next level to the point where we can challenge the Balltimore’s, the Buffalo’s, and the Kansas City’’s of the world when it matters most. And I fully acknowledge the Texans played up in the postseason especially with the dominating 20 point win over the Chargers – and by out gaining the Chiefs by over 120 yards and winning the time of possession battle in the divisional round – and I also know there were multiple calls Texans fans didn’t agree with in this game – rightfully so might I add – but now that the Texans have a high floor and now that they have the culture established with DeMeco Ryans and CJ Stroud and Will Anderson – how do they take the next step as a football team and not get beat by Baltimore 31-2 at home two weeks before the playoffs start. Especially with the offensive line concerns they have heading into the season – and especially with a first year offensive coordinator in Nick Caley – who is coming over from the Rams after being their tight ends coach and pass game coordinator in 2024. I have no questions about a healthy CJ Stroud and Nico Collins regarding the Texans offense – but where I do have questions is – effectively – the remaining 9 starters on offense – as well as a first time play caller in 2025.
