When you’re an NFL team that drafts pretty well, it creates tough decisions over who to keep and who to let walk. If you have a ton of good, young players on the team, eventually the salary cap prevents you from keeping all of them. The Texans will find this out, in a big way, over the next couple seasons, as their young core ages into second contracts.
Indeed, some decisions are harder than others. However, the decisions the Texans made on Wednesday morning were two of the easier choices to make, as it was reported first by Field Yates of ESPN.com, that the Texans are exercising the fifth year option on their two 2023 first round picks, quarterback C.J. Stroud and defensive end Will Anderson, Jr.
This decision ties both players to the Texans contractually through the 2027 season, where as of now, Stroud would be set to make slightly over $25 million for that season, and Anderson would be making just over $21 million. For what it’s worth, Stroud and Anderson play the two most expensive positions in football. Both players are eligible for long term extensions beyond 2027, but the likelihood of that happening seems drastically different for each of the two.
Anderson, as has been discussed in this space several times, is a virtual lock to get a long term extension beyond 2027, an extension whereby he likely becomes the highest paid non-quarterback in the sport, a distinction which currently belongs to Green Bay (formerly Dallas) defensive end Micah Parsons, at $47 million per year. Anderson was runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year in 2025, has improved in each of his three seasons, and embodies everything DeMeco Ryans looks for in a football player, on and off the field.
Stroud’s situation is a little more complicated. Stroud’s trajectory over three seasons has been far less linear than Anderson’s. Stroud came out fast, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2023, but since then, the regular seasons have been very inconsistent, and his playoff performance last year against the Patriots (four picks) was abysmal. Most reports have Stroud as unlikely to get an extension this offseason, which makes 2026 a massive endeavor for the fourth year signal caller.
Of course, the two players were drafted with back to back selections in the 2023 NFL Draft, with the Texans selecting Stroud with their own pick at 2nd overall and then trading up from 12th to 3rd overall to select Anderson. The exercising of the 5th year option is one stark indicator that these picks, by and large, have worked out for the Texans, thus far.
