Why the Texans’ Offseason Missteps Could Doom Their Entire NFL Season Before It’s Even Begun

It’s hard not to feel a sense of disbelief watching the Houston Texans stumble through an 0-3 start this season—especially after they came so close to breaking through the playoff ceiling not just once, but twice. Expectations were mildly optimistic, if not hopeful. Yet here we are, witnessing a team that seems to have lost its way entirely on offense. The crux? Their blueprint to shore up the offensive line — the very foundation meant to protect their star rookie QB C.J. Stroud and reignite a sputtering attack — was, frankly, misguided at best. Instead of laying down blocks, they may have built a house of cards, and it’s showing across the board as their offensive metrics dive further into the abyss. The defense, no doubt, remains a formidable force, but football’s a team sport, and without balance, it’s a losing gamble. Brutal, frustrating, and frankly, the stuff of “what could’ve been.” If Houston’s plans were their lifeline, they’ve cut it short already. LEARN MORE.

There may not be a bigger disappointment in the NFL this year than the Houston Texans, who have gotten off to an 0-3 start despite moderately high expectations for them coming off back-to-back divisional round appearances. However, it was clear during the offseason that they didn’t have the best plan in place to complete their No. 1 task: fixing the offense.

The 2024 season featured former rookie of the year C.J. Stroud and a top-flight receiver in Nico Collins …and not much else. Through three games, they don’t even look like the 2024 Texans — they look like something far worse. And a good chunk of this was predictable.

Houston had one main thing to do to get the offense back up to the standard it set during Stroud’s rookie season in 2023 — improve the offensive line. The Texans’ line was a massive problem last season, tanking their hopes of an effective rushing attack and putting far too much pressure on Stroud to be an elevating force in a sea of chaos. While they did make the playoffs, that was largely due to the success of their face-eating defense that was littered with stars at all three levels.

[Get more Texans news: Houston team feed]

Here’s another way to say the same thing: According to TruMedia, the Texans’ offense ranked 31st in success rate last year while the defense ranked first. Without Stroud they had nothing, and that was something that needed to be fixed.

Ok, right on. Fixing the offensive line is a clear plan going forward. Trading away longtime offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil after an up-and-down season could be explained as a look toward the future and adding multiple pieces to the offensive line. Where the Texans went horrifically wrong was deciding which offensive linemen to target in free agency and the draft. Somehow, the front office decided that mashing together a Frankenstein’s monster of some of the worst offensive linemen in the league was the medicine to their ailments.

Prior to the start of free agency, the Texans traded a sixth-round pick for Vikings oft-maligned guard Ed Ingram, and signed veteran tackles Cam Robinson and Trent Brown and journeyman guard Laken Tomlinson over the following weeks. So, Tunsil out. Ingram, Robinson, Brown and Tomlinson in. And all four prior to the NFL draft. This is not to denigrate where those players are in their careers, but the idea that an improved offensive line worthy of playoff contention was going to come from players who shouldn’t be starting anymore was bold. The Texans even saw Robinson up close over the years considering he played for the Jaguars for eight seasons!

That group of players could potentially be solid depth, but considering they added these guys so early into the start of the league year, it’s clear that that core was their plan. That’s strange and quite frankly confusing from a guy like general manager Nick Caserio, who has made so many other good moves to build this playoff-level team over the past few years. Houston added tackle Aireontae Eresery in the second round of the NFL draft to man the blindside for Stroud and grow into a capable player. That’s not even a super high investment for a starting left tackle, and second-round starting tackles can only be expected to do so much as rookies (or else they would’ve gone in the first round.) Ersery has some promise, but his start so far has looked like a non-first-round rookie making starts at left tackle.

All of this has led to an offense that is worse this year compared to last year in terms of points per drive (1.48 to 1.19), percentage of drives without a first down (31.6% to 37.5%), turnover percentage (9.3% to 15.6%), rushing success rate (31.5% to 24.6%), red zone drives ending in a touchdown (49.1% to 0%) and third-and-short conversion rate (56.7% to 33.3%). The Texans’ offense was already bad last year and now has taken another step back. Almost all of this can be pointed back to the baffling offensive line moves. Breaking in a new offensive coordinator in Nick Caley with a young quarterback is already tough enough, but they didn’t give themselves a chance with their decisions up front.

And now it’s a long road back to playoff contention, and the Texans will be facing another offseason where they need to make major changes on offense. It’s just hard to see an offense this bad clawing back from 0-3, even with one of the most talented defenses in the league behind them.