Battle Red Blog
With a refurbished offensive line, the Houston Texans are hoping to take it all the way to the top in 2025. Here are three Secret Superstars who could help them get there.
The 2024 Houston Texans had an interesting season in which they alternated between looking like one of the NFL’s best teams and occasionally one of the worst, with a whole lot of undecided in between.
When it all worked, it was about a great defense, and an offense that had things all the way together with one of the best young quarterbacks in football, C.J. Stroud. When it didn’t, the youth of that defense showed up, and an offensive line that was full of shrug heading into the season got even worse.
There aren’t really any long-term questions about the defense; everything is arrowing up on that side of the ball. But after an offseason in which the team traded left tackle Laremy Tunsil to the Washington Commanders, and made a bunch of moves to bolster their front five that seemed to raise uncertainly within the facility, it’s tough to say that things are any better there. Along with the Tunsil trade, the Texans traded 2022 15th overall pick Kenyon Green to the Eagles for defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and they made a few other acquisitions that didn’t really excite – tackles Cam Robinson and Trent Brown, and guards Ed Ingram and Laken Tomlinson. The selection of Minnesota tackle Aireontae Ersery with the 48th overall pick may be the best for the future, but even that’s a relative unknown right now despite Ersery’s impressive upside.
“Yeah, there’s never one particular thing,” general manager Nick Caserio said at the scouting combine regarding the line’s personnel and improvement. “So I think the big thing is, can you get the players to do the right thing, to understand their assignment? Do they play the right way with the right techniques? Do they play with the right fundamentals? Can they execute their assignment? Do they have an understanding of what’s going on? So, I don’t want to oversimplify it. Sometimes it’s like, they come up with some magic formula. You protect from the inside out, can you protect the interior pocket? Can you identify the rushers that are the [biggest] threat? Do you have an answer or solution, what they’re doing on defense? So, we’ll do whatever we think makes the most sense.
“Where we are today could be different in a week from now, could be different a few months from now. I don’t know how it looks. Just because a guy is here doesn’t necessarily mean, that’s what it’s going to look like. You guys were here a couple years ago, where we basically traded for three offensive linemen, signed another player, guys that weren’t even here. We weren’t even talking about in training camp, we are playing Week 1 through 4. So I mean, that’s just how it goes. So you are prepared for anything. So you’ve got to...
