When DeMeco Ryans was hired as the Houston Texans’ sixth full time head coach in franchise history back in late January, for the first time in years, there was a sudden sense of enthusiastic anticipation for the upcoming season. It felt like the start of preseason and actual preseason games would never arrive. Well, it’s been a long, hot — REALLY HOT — six months and change, but here we are!
The Houston Texans, with DeMeco Ryans as their head coach, are in New England Thursday night to face off against this century’s defining franchise, the New England Patriots, with Bill Belichick patrolling the opposing sideline and former Texans head coach Bill O’Brien coordinating the Patriots’ offense after a year of Matt Patricia-led sludge.
Certainly, one of the bigger sidebar storylines is the reunion with O’Brien, who will be back in the same building with a slew of Houston Texans employees for the first time since he was fired back in 2020 after an 0-4 start to the season. Will there be any pregame interaction between O’Brien and some of the more prominent Texans with whom he has ties? Cal McNair? Nick Caserio? Laremy Tunsil?
Any O’Brien drama will eventually serve as an appetizer to the actual game, in which there is plenty to watch for tonight, if you’re a Texans fan. Here are four things to keep an eye on:
4. Offensive line depth wanted
The backups along the offensive line would be an area to watch, even if the Texans’ offensive line were fully healthy. However, the hand injury to starting right tackle Tytus Howard, along with the current PUP list stint for Howard’s backup Charlie Heck, have turned offensive line depth into a legit “hot spot” of concern. The Texans have also lost last season’s starting center Scott Quessenberry with a torn ACL and MCL, hastening the ascension of rookie center Juice Scruggs to the first unit. Among the names to keep an eye on tonight — starting right tackle George Fant, backup tackles Killian Zierer and Austin Deculus, and interior backups Jimmy Morrissey, Michael Dieter, and rookie Jarrett Patterson.
3. Wide receiver job fair
The Texans’ receiving group has been ranked throughout the preseason, by most outlets, as a bottom five group. In my opinion, this lack of optimism for this group stems from (a) the lack of a proven “big play” threat, and (b) so many of the most promising players being rookies (or in the case of John Metchie, a second year player getting his first real game action). Right now, it appears the top six receivers are all on a fairly equal footing, with all of them having been swapped in with the first team offense at some point in the preseason. The ones to watch most closely tonight are the aforementioned younger players — Tank Dell, Xavier Hutchinson, and Metchie, who will see his first game action since recovering from cancer last season.
2. Does “Practice” Will Anderson translate into the games?
The two most disruptive players defensively for the Texans this preseason have been second year safety Jalen Pitre and rookie defensive end Will Anderson. Pitre’s plays in practice, where there is very little hitting and no tackling, translate much better to the regular season than Anderson’s, given that Pitre’s plays are largely on the ball. Anderson makes his presence felt collapsing the pocket and menacing the quarterbacks and running backs in the backfield. Without tackling in practice, we can only speculate as to whether Anderson’s disruption would turn into actual sacks, but I’m fairly certain they will. Thursday night, we finally get to see Anderson bring a quarterback to the ground, hopefully something that happens several times once the regular season rolls around.
1. C.J. Stroud, new era begins
DeMeco Ryans seemed to reluctantly name Stroud the starting quarterback in an onsite interview with the NFL Network this week, following Monday’s practice. I would guess Ryans seeming trepidation in naming Stroud the starter is not at all indicative of how he feels about Stroud’s camp, thus far. The rookie quarterback has gotten better and better with each passing day, and he earned this spot. Now, we get to see how much of practice translates to games tonight. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for since the draft in April.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
