Battle Red Blog
What changes have the Texans made to make this year better than the last?
Entering the 2025 NFL season, the Houston Texans find themselves right in the middle of a golden era. Defined by quarterback C.J. Stroud and head coach DeMeco Ryans, this era of Texans football has been a hallmark of success, a particularly impressive feat considering the amount of transition the entire franchise has gone through since Ryans was hired in January 2023. Nothing epitomizes the pace in which Houston has become a contender more than the team-wide desperation for a Super Bowl while most of the starters are still on their rookie contracts. Although, that pivotal 2023 draft class will be entering their third year on their rookie contracts, so if negotiations haven’t already started between the top picks and the Texans on a second contract, then they will be very soon.
The hype both inside and outside of the building couldn’t be higher, and with the aforementioned star players on rookie contracts soon to be expiring, the stakes couldn’t be higher in this pivotal third year, but of course, that isn’t to say Houston wasn’t challenging for a championship previously.
Going as far as the divisional round two years in a row has to be a good omen for a roster full of young players, but both 2023 and 2024 Texans teams had warts that were all too apparent by playoff season. Even though that 2023 team felt destined for greatness, all of those last-second victories couldn’t be sustainable. In 2024, Houston appeared primed to make their championship push with a retooled defense and big offensive signings in Stefon Diggs and Joe Mixon, but the offense was never able to return to the highs it experienced in Stroud’s rookie year. Well, why is that? Now that the dust has settled on both seasons, what stands out when surveying the rubble?
Unfortunately, there is not an immediate and obvious answer to the dilemma of what caused Houston to stagnate in 2024. A myriad of changes and adjustments, both large and small, contributed to both the 2023 and 2024 roster’s strengths and weaknesses, making it difficult to determine what issues have persisted since head coach DeMeco Ryans arrived in January 2023. But, if we take a snapshot of each season by looking at their “best” and “worst” respective games, maybe we can find a silver lining between the two seasons. By looking at each team’s highest peak and deepest valley, maybe we can figure out what changes have worked and what problems persist!
Of course, which individual contests are considered the “best” and “worst” is up to interpretation. To me, Houston’s “best” games of the Stroud/Ryans era are those where multiple players on both sides of the ball made great individual plays to set the team up for success against a similarly ranked or better opponent. Houston’s “worst” games are those where you knew the end result after the first quarter, where there was never an extended period...
