HOUSTON —
• The Texans reworked a bunch of things on offense and have come out of the transition pretty excited about their depth at the skill positions. No one is displacing Nico Collins as the No. 1 receiver, but holdover Xavier Hutchinson showed up determined to carve out a role with a lot of new faces in the room, and has been a driving force for the work ethic of the group. His presence should be a steady one for C.J. Stroud. The two top-100 picks the Texans spent at receiver, on Iowa State’s Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel, promise to pan out quickly with the football IQ they’ve already flashed. And veteran Christian Kirk, dangerous with the ball in his hands, has already established trust with Stroud. Meanwhile, at running back and tight end, the increased depth is already paying dividends. Brevin Jordan looked on the verge of a breakout year before getting hurt earlier in camp, but the Texans also have Dalton Schultz. And while Joe Mixon deals with his foot injury, Nick Chubb’s got Houston optimistic that, so long as he can stay healthy, his abilities to see the field and read blocks, which are showing in camp, mitigate what he’s lost physically.
• New coordinator Nick Caley is a big part of the equation here too, and he and Stroud have worked hard over the course of the offseason to establish a trust level. Caley, who has experience coaching in the offenses of Sean McVay and Josh McDaniels, and the offensive staff resolved to build their scheme from scratch, sprinkling in elements of Caley’s background from the Rams and Patriots, but also incorporating things the Texans already did well and using nomenclature that’d make the transition easier on the players. Stroud’s been in the trenches for all that, with the hope that he’ll be able to do more at the line of scrimmage than he has in his first two years, which would be leveraging a strength of his from his college days.
• Then, there’s the elephant in the room, which is the offensive line. Caley and line coach Cole Popovich have been mixing and matching eight to 11 linemen to find the right combination. On Thursday, rookie Aireontae Ersery was the left tackle, Laken Tomlinson was the left guard, Jake Andrews was the center, Ed Ingram was the right guard and Tytus Howard was the right tackle. All that is written in pencil as Houston tries to find the five that work best together. Veteran Trent Brown is still trying to get healthy. Another older tackle, Cam Robinson, got hurt earlier in camp, which opened the door for the second-round pick Ersery to get more work at left tackle. (He’s answered the character questions he had coming out, and has looked big, strong, tough and edgy thus far and has the most upside of any of them.) Jarrett Patterson is in the mix at center. Juice Scruggs is also competing at the interior spots, as is Blake Fisher at tackle. And so the Texans will keep working to get the right mix, with Howard seemingly the only certain starter, and carrying the flexibility to play tackle or guard. One thing’s for sure—after how last year went, the fate of this group will go a long way in determining how far the Texans go in January.
• The good news is that the line's been tested plenty, because the Texans’ defensive front might be the deepest in football. You have superstars Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter as the frontliners, and six other guys who’ll be able to rotate through, keeping legs fresh and the energy of what’s been a relentless group at 100. Veterans Sheldon Rankins and Mario Edwards Jr., both now in their 30s, have had really nice summers and seem poised to have a really good year. And as a whole, this group should provide the foundation for a unit that has every reason to believe it should be in the argument for the NFL’s very best defense.
• The other piece of that is at corner, where the Texans boast perhaps a first-team All-Pro in Derek Stingley Jr., and another guy, in Kamari Lassiter, that they feel can ascend to an elite level because of his instincts, savvy, smarts and edge at the position. Add those two to Anderson and Hunter up front, and it becomes pretty easy to envision where the defense is headed. There’s balance, too. The top concern at this point is probably depth at the nickel and safety spots. The Texans would like to shore that up in the coming weeks, but if that’s what you’re worried about … fair to say you’re in good shape.
