The playoffs have arrived in the NFL, and the Houston Texans welcome a playoff opponent they’ve not met before in the postseason, with the Los Angeles Chargers coming to town for the tradition like no other — a Texans home playoff game at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Eight postseasons, eight home playoff games in the first round, eight 3:30 p.m. kickoffs on Saturday. It’s basically the Houston Texans Invitational at this point.
In the meantime, the first week after the season is over is littered with two things — coaches getting fired and accolades for a job well done. In the latter category, we found out last week, actually, that four Houston Texans were named to the Pro Bowl Games:
And six more were named alternates, in case some of the AFC starters and reserves either bow out or are playing in the Super Bowl the week after the Pro Bowl Games:
Man, this is a ton of progress compared to where this team was talent-wise a couple years ago. Here are a few thoughts on the above listed accolades:
Stingley versus Sauce debate takes a major hit
For two seasons, and particularly after their rookie season in 2022, the Jets CB Sauce Gardner, a first team All Pro as a rookie, was dominating the debate over who the better highly drafted cornerback was. That was a blow to the Texans and Nick Caserio, who drafted Stingley one pick ahead of Gardner in 2022. After missing 14 of his first 34 NFL games, Stingley has become arguably the best cornerback in the NFL, allowing just a 47.0 passer rating, and Gardner didn’t even make the Pro Bowl this season. He is the second alternate at cornerback, so he’s still a good player, but Stingley has leapfrogged everyone, except maybe Broncos B Patrick Surtain at that position.
Laremy the Legend?
I know Texans fans will find this crazy, and maybe see it as sacrilegious to even bring up, but with his fifth Pro Bowl honor, left tackle Laremy Tunsil — he of the NFL leading 17 penalties this season — now ties J.J. Watt for second all time among Houston Texans. (Andre Johnson leads with seven overall Pro Bowl designations.) Watt is a sure fire Hall of Famer, but we forget that he only really had six fully healthy seasons here after his rookie year in 2011 — the five seasons he made the Pro Bowl (2012-2015, 2018) and the COVID season in 2020. Laremy might end up the all time franchise leader in Pro Bowls, and when that happens, I am staying off Twitter that day.
Rare air for Mixon
For the fifth time in his career, Joe Mixon surpassed the 1,000 yard mark in a season. He’s been an incredible pickup for the Texans both on the field, and in the locker room, where he was named a captain midway through the regular season. Along those lines, with such sustained success throughout his tenure in Cincinnati, I was shocked to find this was just Mixon’s second Pro Bowl honor, the first coming in 2021, when the Bengals made the Super Bowl. So who knows? Maybe that’s the trend — when Joe Mixon makes the Pro Bowl, his team makes the Super Bowl.
Voting dichotomy
The selection process for the Pro Bowl is a combination — one third each for fan voting, player voting, and coaches voting. I found it interesting that the two players who were the highest up the board in the fan voting at their position — Danielle Hunter (3rd at DE) and Will Anderson (4th at DE) — didn’t make the Pro Bowl, while some of the players who weren’t even in the top 10 in fan voting at their positions — Tunsil, Nico Collins — made the game. I’d also add that C.J. Stroud was not among the top ten quarterbacks in fan voting, but escalated all the way up to second alternate in the AFC at quarterback .
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