With the Houston Texans at 0-3 and the Houston Astros coming off one of their worst regular seasons, despite winning their division, in the last decade, we’re pretty lucky sports fans here, compared to other American cities. Not only are all three major teams a relative fixture in their respective sports’ postseasons over the last few years, but we have star power galore.
Rockets forward Kevin Durant is probably the biggest global icon among current Houston athletes, a designation whose measured in the currency of social media following. Durant has 13.4 million Instagram followers. He is certainly the star of the Houston Rockets, but at 38 years old (which Durant just turned this week), Durant is probably only here in a playing capacity for another seaosn, maybe two tops.
For our other two teams, though, the face of their respective franchises are younger, and at this point, probably higher up the food chain of current greatness in their sport than Durant is, which is saying something, because 2026 Kevin Durant is an All Star. Of course, I’m referring to Texans defensive end Will Anderson and Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez.
Alvarez just finished up a regular season, in which he led baseball in a long list of offensive categories. Unfortunately, he did it for a team where he was basically the whole damn show. The Astros struggled to finish .500 this season, at 81-81. Will Anderson is off to a great start individually, with four sacks, but the Texans are off to yet another 0-3 start.
For Alvarez, the hay is in the barn. For Anderson, there is a ton of season still remaining, but it begs the question — is Will Anderson basically rhe Texans’ version of Yordan Alvarez? Let’s examine:
They both might be the best in the world at their jobs
To expand on the previous paragraphs, Yordan Alvarez has always been one of the most talented hitters on the planet. Injuries, however, always prevented him from snaring the title of “Best Hitter on the Planet.” Not in 2026, though, where Alvarez played in 158 games and led baseball in numerous categories, including batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage.
Anderson is a rising star, who finished runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year in his third season last year. This season, he already has four sacks, two forced fumbles, and is the highest rated edge defender in the sport on Pro Football Focus (93.0 grade). With Myles Garrett out with a knee injury, Anderson is seeing the mantle of “Best Edge Rusher on the Planet.”
They both are the odds-on favorites to get recognized with the appropriate hardware
The notion that Alvarez and Anderson are both the best at what they do is not just a matter of my spouting statistics and conveying my opinion. Follow the money! Follow the odds! That’s my battle cry. After his historic offensive season in 2026, Alvarez is a whopping -6000 favorite to become the third Astro to win an MVP award (Jeff Bagwell 1994, Jose Altuve 2017). For Anderson, it’s still very early, but he’s jumped out to a noticeable lead on the odds board for NFL Defensive Player of the Year, with odds of +350, with Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson coming in second at +750. Alvarez is a lock to win the MVP, and Anderson is the safest bet right now, early in his season.
They both are toiling for teams that are mediocre
The problem for Alvarez all season, in the American League MVP race, was that he was playing for a team that had to labor for four months just to move into first place in the worst divisional race in the history of baseball. Baseball’s MVP award is often very tied to team performance. The Astros were an average team, at best, all season. In the NFL, the DPoY Award isn’t so much tied to team performance. Garrett, just last season, won the award on a 4-13 Browns team. However, it’s not nearly as much fun watching your franchise icons take home hardware in a mediocre season. Ask fans of J.J. Watt, who won three DPoY awards, two of which were in season where the Texans went 9-7. At 0-3, the Texans path to a .500 season is seriously damaged. Anderson’s greatness might be a distraction from the team’s performance, as opposed to a catalyst to actual winning, VERY much like Alvarez.
They both have called players-only meetings within the last two weeks
On these flawed teams for which Anderson and Alvarez both work, they are viewed as leaders on the team, not just in their on-field performance, but in the way they conduct their overall business. Alvarez is more of a quiet leader, whereas Anderson is more demonstrative and extroverted. The one thing they have in common, though, is that, as their teams were both failing within the last two weeks, they each took the bull by the horns to call a players-only meeting to reset the path to success. Alvarez’s meeting worked well enough to get the Astros over the finish line at 81-81. It remains to be seen if Anderson’s meeting, which was strictly for the defense, worked. We’ll know more by December.
