Battle Red Blog
Battle Red Blog writers collectively frustrated but trusting in Caserio
It was a wild — yet typical — Nick Caserio NFL Draft weekend. Houston completed seven trades throughout the draft and added nine prospects to form the Texans’ 2025 draft class. None of which answered the Texans biggest positional need heading into the draft: center and guard. Houston “addressed” the position via free agency, but those players as mentioned by several of the writers below are debatably mediocre at best.
I asked the writers to air their frustration and provide their thoughts on why Nick Caserio didn’t address the position in the draft:
I’m in wait and see mode. I have to hope they know something we don’t. Either they like the internal options more than we do or didn’t like the options in the draft. Crying over it won’t do any good. My fear is that neglecting it will force a Laremy Tunsil type desperation move like in 2019. It’s definitely not a good look but they get paid to do this and I don’t.
One might argue that even if Houston brought in 2-3 IOL prospects, the line might not be any more effective this year than last. That Houston only drafted ONE OL prospect period, and that an OT, indicates that Houston is likely okay with the various depth signings they made in free agency, as well as maintaining faith in incumbent Juice Scruggs and Jarrett Patterson to hold down the interior.
Likely they will keep Howard at guard (never mind he is better at Tackle, but Houston is [KITTEN]-bent on keeping him there) and they figure that Cam Robinson, Blake Fisher and maybe Aireontae Ersery can hold down the tackle spots. Maybe they hope that something emerges from the UDFA pool. If nothing else, hopefully Stroud was working on his running abilities like he said he would after the Division Round loss at Kansas City.
Kenneth L.
As I posted on Twitter/X, I thought Nick Caserio was going to address offensive line early and often, but instead drafted more QBs than guards or centers.
Ersery is a true tackle who I doubt can transition to guard due to his 6’6 frame. I don’t trust Jarrett Patterson to develop into a starting center nor has Juice Scruggs shown anything close to his second round selection.
While “Best Player Available” is a fine strategy, Houston had two critical needs: protect C.J. Stroud and add weapons around C.J. Stroud. They added weapons, sure... but Stroud won’t have time to throw to them if he is running for his life.
If this season goes wrong and Stroud is the most sacked QB in the league, the only person you can point to is Caserio for not doing his job
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