We are around two weeks away from the NFL Draft. The NFL Owners Meetings are behind us, and it feels like this should be a bit of a calm before the storm, the storm where the Texans add anywhere from seven to nine new, young faces to their team.
It’s a good opportunity to breathe for a few days, and assess where everything is with this team right now. It appears that GM Nick Caserio is getting largely good grades for his efforts in free agency, and in acquiring other talent via trade, most notably running back David Montgomery.
Right now, these are my five biggest questions about the Houston Texans, some being short term and some being more long term:
5. Is there a Nick Caserio curveball coming in the next two weeks?
If you recall, it was around this time of the NFL offseason when Caserio made the blockbuster trade for wide receiver Stefon Diggs. Caserio loves making moves. This we know. I don’t know that there’s a player out there that is a likely trade target, but more likely, there is a veteran free agent that Caserio could land at a position of need, or more likely, he makes a trade to stockpile more draft capital, trading out of the first round to get more Day 2 draft capital or 2027 draft capital.
4. When OTA’s and minicamp arrive, who are the five starting offensive lineman?
This is one of the more long range questions, but given the Texans hyperactivity in the free agent offensive line market, plus the likelihood of their drafting at least one (possibly more) offensive linemen, it’s intriguing to wonder what the depth chart will look like when the depth chart begins to matter. If they had to play a game this Sunday, I’d guess they’d be going with a line of, left to right, Aireontae Ersery, Wyatt Teller, Jake Andrews, Ed Ingram, and Braden Smith. Trent Brown and Evan Brown provide versatile depth, and Blake Fisher and Jarrett Patterson are wondering if they’re going to be Texans this season.
3. When the schedule comes out, are the Texans still an attraction?
The schedule is set to come out in about a month, as it is usually released in early May. It’s one of the more underrated days on the NFL calendar, especially when the team for whom you root is relevant. The Texans are undoubtedly relevant, but the question is whether they’re still viewed as a draw. People love watching their defense, but the offense is not very viewer friendly. The last two seasons, the Texans have combined to have eleven games with a captive audience. In other words, eleven times they’ve been on primetime or a late season Saturday afternoon game. If I had to guess, they’ll come in around that number again in 2026. We’ll find out in May.
2. When does Will Anderson, Jr. get his contract extension?
Honestly, I thought this deal would be done by now. A year ago, Derek Stingley, Jr., who had established himself after three seasons as one of the top corners in the sport, got his new market-setting deal a week into the league’s new year. He signed on March 18, 2025, and became the highest paid cornerback in football. Anderson’s inevitable contract extension might reset the entire non-quarterback market. That current market leader is Green Bay’s Micah Parsons, whose contract has an average annual value of $47 million.
Caserio has not been afraid to pay premium value for the Texans’ own players on contract extensions, largely because they have first hand intel on how those players handle these newfound riches. Anderson is everything you want in a player and person, and I’d be shocked if this negotiation makes it to minicamp in June.
1. Are there any other extensions that we might see?
The Anderson contract story is the most “front burner” of all the current Texans. Certainly, the topic of an extension for C.J. Stroud, which it seems is unlikely to happen this summer (if ever), brings every opinion under the sun bubbling up to the surface of Hot Take-ville. Aside from Stroud and Anderson, there are a few other players that are three years into their careers (the minimum time served that one must have to be extension eligible) that the Texans might consider extending to deals not nearly close to the dollars Anderson and Stroud will eventually get. Henry To’o To’o, Tank Dell, and Xavier Hutchinson all fit that bill. Among veteran players the team should look to extend, captain Azeez Al-Shaair is at the top of that list.
