Each year, the National Football League conducts its draft scouting combine in Indianapolis in the final week of February, and while ostensibly the purpose of the gathering is for teams to gain some intel on draft prospects through drills and private interviews, the whole week turns into a bit of a summit meeting for the league’s 32 front offices.
With free agency just a week away, and with numerous players available via trade, the week in Indy is as much about the conversations at the various hotel bars (and St. Elmo’s Steakhouse) as it is 40-yard dash times and draft prospects through podium sessions.
With that in mind, the Houston Texans seem to be the team, early on in the aftermath, to have set up imminent deals, with two big trades going down on Monday morning, one very surprising and the other one highly necessary, given the depth chart at a certain position.
Here are the details of the two deals that went down, along with some analysis of each:
Texans trade RT Tytus Howard to the Browns for a 2026 5th round pick
This was one of those trades where I had to double check to make sure that it wasn’t a fake Ian Rapoport account dropping the news. Indeed, it was not. Howard evidently was angling for a new contract, as the Browns promptly extended him for three more years at a total of $63 million. Obviously, in the short term, this leaves the Texans with even more question marks along the offensive line.
With a ton of draft capital and the potential to open up cap space, there are solutions out there, but the pressure is on Nick Caserio to hit solid singles and doubles, at least, in free agency and the draft, and thus far, as GM, on the offensive line, he’s been largely ground outs and strikeouts. Aireontae Ersery is the key exception, and he’s also the only remaining unquestioned starter on the line for this coming season.
Texans trade a 2026 4th round pick, a 2027 7th round pick, and G/C Juice Scruggs to the Lions for RB David Montgomery
A couple hours later, after Texans fans had a chance to digest the Howard trade, along came the second deal of the morning, with the Texans trading multiple Day 3 picks (and dumping fourth year guard Juice Scruggs in here, as well) for Montgomery, who’s been really productive since signing with the Lions, but whose role diminished this season, with running back Jahmyr Gibbs turning into one of the best players in the sport. Montgomery wanted out, and reportedly the Texans were one of his top choices.
We have a couple takeaways from this deal, on the Texans side of things. First, this almost certainly means that Joe Mixon’s time in Houston is done. It was looking that way, even before the trade, but this seems to seal the deal. Mixon’s mystery injury will go down as a very frustrating “what if” of this era of Texans football. Also, this deal is an admission that the Juice Scruggs draft selection was a failure. A former second round pick is a “throw in” mixed into a deal for a running back. Adios, Juice.