Houston Texans Offseason Grade: One Risky Move Could Spoil Everything
Before looking back on the Houston Texans’ offseason and contextualizing the moves, in order to understand them, we need to look back just a bit further.
There’s this notion that quarterback C.J. Stroud regressed in his second season, from an absolutely gangbusters rookie campaign in 2024. After being chosen No. 2 overall, Stroud burst onto the scene by passing for 4,108 yards with 23 touchdowns to five interceptions while leading Houston to the AFC Divisional Round, when Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens lambasted Stroud’s Texans.
Fast forward to the 2024 campaign when Stroud passed for 3,727 yards with 20 touchdowns to 12 interceptions.
Sure, Stroud passed for about 1.5 games’ worth fewer passing yards, the touchdowns ticked down, and the interceptions ticked up. But, the Texans still steamrolled Justin Herbert’s Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC Wild Card before hanging tough with Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs, in Arrowhead, the following week.
To contextualize both Stroud’s output in 2024 and how the Texans have conducted business in spring 2025, it’s worth remembering that Houston’s top wide receiver, Stefon Diggs, was lost for the season in Week 8, and Tank Dell’s season ended following a gruesome leg injury in Week 14.
So, despite a decimated receiving corps, Stroud only slipped from 11th in passing touchdowns as a rookie to 13th in 2025, and still helped Houston win a playoff game.
Meanwhile, five of the Texans’ losses were by one score or fewer, so this was a team that was in a lot of games and whose ceiling may be loftier than meets the eye.
Is that really a regression, or an indicator of what Stroud is as a quarterback, especially with some of his top weapons knocked from the lineup ahead of the most critical stretch of the season? From here, it doesn’t feel like a regression.
Either way, since free agency began in March, the Texans have gone all in on figuring out.
What I Liked About the Houston Texans’ Offseason
Houston is adopting the posture of a team determined to maximize their Super Bowl window during their quarterback’s rookie contract, while surrounding Stroud with playmakers at the skill positions and trying to fortify the offensive line.
Trading for Christian Kirk, who has been lauded the past three seasons by NFL executives as a rising star and underrated talent, gives Stroud and Houston a deep threat who has averaged over 13.5 yards per reception each of the past two seasons. Then, rounding back by selecting Iowa State standout Jayden Higgins, who caught everything during the Senior Bowl after flashing an elite ability to create separation off his first step at the line of scrimmage, and later his Cyclones teammate Jaylin Noel resets the receiver position that’s already stacked with burgeoning star Nico Collins, and Dell.
Likewise, drafting offensive tackle Aireontae Ersery, who only allowed one sack last season at Minnesota is not just an investment in the future in the line in front of Stroud, but immediate competition for free agent newcomer Cam Robinson.
Defensively, trading for C.J. Gardner-Johnson adds Super Bowl leadership, and a dawg, on the back-end of the secondary who should thrive both in DeMeco Ryans’ scheme and the culture the rising head coach is building.
General manager Nick Caserio and the Texans spent much of free agency fortifying depth across the roster with savvy veterans such as Mario Edwards and M.J. Stewart, in hopes of boosting the defense.
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What Worries Me About the Houston Texans’ Offseason, 2025 Outlook
There’s so much to like about the talent infusion the Texans have undergone this season, through the draft and by adding veteran culture fits with upside.
But, trading Laremy Tunsil to the Washington Commanders - albeit after a bit of a disappointing season, and replacing him with Cam Robinson off a season in which he allowed seven sacks, feels like a risk. Maybe a big one.
Stroud was sacked eight times the last time he stepped onto a football field last spring, and Robinson feels more like a stopgap than a solution.
It almost seems as if the Texans are experimenting with the notion that if there is enough electrifying talent at the skill positions that it can make up for a patchwork offensive line, and that feels like a fool’s errand capable of lowering a franchise’s ceiling from legitimate Super Bowl contender to a threat to make the conference championship game once every five seasons, or so.
Houston Texans’ Offseason Grade: B-
There’s so much to like about the talent Caserio, Ryans, and the Texans have surrounded Stroud with.
It almost feels like an attempt to insulate the third-year starter from the kind of injuries that decimated his receiving corps and ultimately torpedoed the Texans’ 2024 campaign.
Stroud withstood 52 sacks last season, up from 38 as a rookie.
This offseason, top-five center Drew Dalman was available (ultimately signing with the Chicago Bears), Mekhi Becton is going to try to keep Justin Herbert upright while opening running lanes for Najee Harris and Omarion Hampton following a season of intense study under the premier offensive line coach at any level of the sport.
Maybe Robinson finds himself, or gets demolished by Ersery this summer in a battle for the starting job, and Stroud winds up having more time in the pocket.
But, at least on the surface, it feels like by sitting out the top of the market—or losing out on those players at key positions along the offensive line, Houston might have a problem.
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I think the lack of quality offensive line play had much more to do with his "regression". He never looked comfortable in the pocket.