There is no debate on the magnitude of the Houston Texans' improvement in 2023, as compared to the previous three seasons. From 2020 through 2022, the team won a grand total of 11 games. In 2023 alone, they won 10. You can nitpick certain details if you like, but that's significant any way you slice it.

I frame it that way, because another inarguable fact is that the Texans faced one of the weakest (if not THE weakest) slate of opposing quarterbacks in 2023 that they've ever faced over the course of a season. Looking back now, the best quarterback the Texans faced, aside from Lamar Jackson in Week 1 and Joe Burrow in Week 10, might have been Baker Mayfield (and Mayfield played the Texans better than Burrow did). Or Joe Flacco. 

But a division crown is a division crown, and despite never playing a single snap as the first place team in the AFC South all season, because the Jacksonville Jaguars lost to the Titans on Sunday after the Texans' regular season had finished, the AFC South crown belongs to the McNair family, for the seventh time in team history.

However, with a division title, comes increased degree of difficulty the following season. As you likely know, most of the NFL schedule (14 out of each team's 17 games) is arranged in rotation in perpetuity. In addition to the annual six games against their three divisional opponents, teams play a rotating combination of one full AFC division (four games) and one NFC division (four games).

The other three games consist of the team that finished in the same place as the Texans from the other two AFC divisions, and from the NFC division they played in full two years. If that seems confusing, just know this — the Texans AFC South title means that they are hosting the Ravens, and traveling to the Chiefs and the Cowboys next season. That is a saucy schedule!

So here is what the list of Texans opponents for 2024 looks like, with dates and times (and venues, since international games are a thing) coming in May:

HOME: Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Tennessee, Buffalo, Miami, Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore
AWAY: Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Tennessee, New York Jets, New England, Green Bay, Minnesota, Kansas City, Dallas

That schedule is a HUGE step up in weight class from 2023 for the Texans. To add some context, in 2024, the Texans will play all three AFC Pro Bowl quarterbacks (Tua Tagovailoa, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes) and the first alternate (Josh Allen). Again, in 2023, after Jackson and Joe Burrow, the third best quarterback the Texans played might have been Baker Mayfield, who is nowhere near the Pro Bowl.

I will say that the home schedule carries a ton of intrigue, a byproduct of the degree of difficulty. There's not a single boring team on that home schedule, if we concede that division games are inherently not boring, regardless of opponent quality. Even the worst of those teams, Chicago, might have Caleb Williams as a rookie at quarterback.

Oh, and how about a Thanksgiving game in Dallas? It's possible! For now, we will just bask in the playoff glow for at least one more week.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.