BY MARK HALPERN
When you are looking at the NFL as a whole no team has improved itself more over the last two seasons than the Houston Texans. The Texans made the right move by getting C.J. Stroud. Stroud excelled as a rookie and led the Texans to the AFC South Division. The Houston Texans have a young team, but they made moves to improve themselves on both sides of the ball. I expect Houston will battle the Jacksonville Jaguars for the top spot for the AFC South.
Stroud threw for 4100 yards 23 TD’s to and only 5 interceptions and ran for 167 yards and three touchdowns in his rookie season. Stroud is an absolute stud of a Quarterback and will be a top 10 Quarterback for years to come. Stroud and the Texans were an unknown going into last season and wound up 10-7 and winning the AFC South. One of the biggest problems for Houston was the lack of a running game (they averaged 96.9 yards per game) They took a chance on former Bills Running Back Devin Singletary and that didn’t work. Singletary wound up leaving to reunite with Brian Daboll and the New York Giants. With Singletary gone, the Texans needed to improve the running back position. They did that with the signing of Joe Mixon. Mixon, an accomplished running back for the Cincinnati Bengals the last few years is a true power lead back that the Texans are missing. Two of the last three seasons Mixon has gone for over 1,000 yards. Mixon is also a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield, he had 52 receptions last season. This should change the Texans offense dramatically, as they should be less one dimensional with the mixing in of Mixon. The Texans needed another receiver to complement the emergence of Tank Dell and Nico Collins last year. Collins had his best year amassing 1297 yards and 8 TD’s and Dell 700 yards and 7 TD’s but, still even though Collins lead the team in a huge way the lack of experience in this part of the depth chart and they got the one of the best receivers in football by getting Stefon Diggs from Buffalo. Diggs has gone over 1,000-yard receiving the last six seasons. Two of the last three seasons he has scored 10 touchdowns. If that wasn’t scary enough Dalton Schultz is a very accomplished tight end and in this high-powered offense could see numbers like he saw during his Dallas years. The key to this Offense working is the protection and the Houston Line is more than up to the challenge. The key for the offensive line is growth from last year and working out the kinks to get Stroud that extra second if they can. Protecting Stroud will be a priority (just like protecting the QB for any team is) but they will be up to the challenge.
Now a team is complete without a Defense and this is where the Texans need to build on in areas. First of all, hats off to Jonathan Greenard on his excellent season that included 12.5 sacks. Greenard had a phenomenal season, but he left for the Vikings in free agency. So the Texans needed to get some pass rush help so they signed Danielle Hunter. Hunter had 16.5 sacks last season, and has double digit sacks in four of the last five seasons. Turnovers and pressure on the quarterback is usually how we define how good a defense is. The Texans last year were a +10 in turnover differential, which was the same as the 49ers and Cowboys. They had 46 sacks on the season, once again the same as the Cowboys. With young players like Will Anderson, Derrick Stingley and Jalen Pitre the defense is bright in Houston, and with Demeco Ryans leading the way I expect the Texans defense to be better in 2024.
If the Texans can improve in certain areas such as penalties and protecting CJ Stroud they can be a real dangerous threat in the AFC. The biggest question is how will they handle expectations? I think they will and I can see them winning 11 games.
The Sports Insanity Network 