Given how the Houston Astros’ 2026 season is sliding into the toilet, and given how disappointing the Houston Rockets’ season ended, it’s pretty easy to get excited about the upcoming Houston Texans’ season. You take the best defense in the sport, improve it, and then finally make a bunch of moves on offense that create a violent culture on that side of the ball — that’s a recipe for excitement!
You want to get even more excited? Of course you do! Well, how about Sam Monson and Steve Palazzolo of the 33rd team (formerly with Pro Football Focus) with this breakdown of the Texans’ roster, on BOTH sides of the ball:
These are national folks saying these things about your Houston Texans. That’s fun! Now, allow me to be a bit of a curmudgeon for a moment. I will remind all of you that we live in Houston, where it feels like (especially lately) that the sports gods will not let us have nice things. We need to proceed with caution!
With that in mind, I ask you, the faithful Texan fan, are there any blind spots that we are missing with our team, as we splash around in this sea of optimism? I listed five potential blind spots, i.e. things we should be paying closer attention to, right here:
5. Depth at running back
The Texans upgraded at the “veteran starting running back” spot by a mile, trading for David Montgomery to replace Nick Chubb. Montgomery is violent, physical, and an automatic yard or two in short yardage situations. Woody Marks can settle in as a backup running back and receiver out of the backfield. After that? Yikes. It’s British Brooks and Jawhar Jordan, who’ve combined for barely 60 career carries. Hell, Evan Hull, who they picked up off the scrap heap this week, might make this team. If something happens to Montgomery, we may be in trouble.
4. They’re making a change at punter
Say what you will about Tommy Townsend, and perhaps he didn’t live up to his potential as the Texans’ punter the last two seasons, but he was a fairly reliable veteran for a team that accentuates special teams. Townsend is gone now, and trying to replace him will be former Saints castoff Kai Kroeger and rookie undrafted free agent Jake Stonehouse. Both will work far cheaper than Townsend, but will it be a matter of the Texans, in a bad way, getting their money’s worth?
3. Aireontae Ersery barely gets mentioned these days, but should he?
This offseason, the heavy attention along the offensive line has gone to the interior. The team signed Wyatt Teller and Evan Brown. The team drafted Keylan Rutledge and Febechi Nwaiwu, both guards or perhaps centers. There’s been zero discussion of left tackle, because Ersery hemmed down that spot in his rookie season last year. The possible blind spot centers around this question — are we assuming too much with Ersery, that he is just the rock solid fixture at left tackle for the next several years? I’m confident in Ersery’s makeup and skills, but it’s no slam dunk that he is the guy long term.
2. Are there injuries lurking around the corner at….. CORNER!
The Houston Texans had incredible injury luck on the defensive side of the football last season. Will Anderson, Danielle Hunter, and Derek Stingley played in every game. Kamari Lassiter and Azeez Al-Shaair missed one game. These things have a way of evening out over the course of multiple seasons. The biggest concern for me is at cornerback, where Stingley has a checkered injury history for his career, and Lassiter plays such a physical brand of football, a style that practically begs for injuries. The depth behind both guys is suspect, at best. They both must stay healthy for the defense to be at peak performance.
- What if Nick Caley doesn’t improve as the offensive coordinator?
Of course, C.J. Stroud is the biggest variable for the upcoming season? Does the playoff failure carry over, or has Stroud made enough changes to his routine and process to get back to 2023 Stroud? That is far from a blind spot. It gets discussed every day. However, there is nearly as big a burden on offensive coordinator Nick Caley, who got better as the season went on, but is still far from an elite play caller and coordinator. The front office seems to have built the offense for a style that Caley wants to play, with big, physical offensive linemen, equipped to run the ball downhill and take pressure off of Stroud.
