Tuesday ended with a flurry of roster moves that made Texans fans the world over confused about motives of those in the front office. You can get the full picture of roster moves the Houston Texans made in Battle Red Blog’s cut-day Tracker, but if you want a quick recap of players no longer in Battle Red:
Getting rid of established backup cornerback Myles Bryant? Dumping T Trent Brown after bringing him in to be the veteran? No more Solomon Thomas or D’Angelo Ross? Cutting Harrison Bryant mere weeks after trading for him?
These are all head scratching moves, indeed. Sifting through the names of those cut loose, you’ll find contributors from last year’s Texans team, former starters on other teams, preseason favorites, and intriguing rookies. After Tuesday’s deadline had passed, it felt like every position group on Houston’s roster had taken a gut punch from the roster trimmers. But, after sitting with these last-minute cuts and considering the highlights we saw in the preseason and in training camp, I came with five takeaways that explain the Houston’s Texans moves as they gear up for week one:
1. Don’t Worry – There are Still Players on the Reserve/IR Lists.
The Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform list, the Commissioner Exempt list, the Reserve/Non-Football Injury list, the Reserve/Injured (Designated for Return) list, and the Reserve/Injured list make up the entirety of lists current Texans players that won’t be able to play week one were placed on. By being placed on one of the many, many kinds of reserve lists, these players will not count as a spot on the 53-man roster, at least until they are healthy and then activated by the Texans. This list includes:
Offense:
- RB Joe Mixon
- TE Irv Smith Jr.
- WR Tank Dell
- WR Juwan Winfree
Defense:
- DT Kurt Hinish
- DE Denico Autry
- CB Alijah Huzzie
- S Jimmie Ward
- S Jaylen Reed
This is quite the mouthful of players all unto its own! Even though the season hasn’t started yet, the Houston Texans are already repeating previous mistakes by entering the season banged up, fingers crossed for the return of some crucial players before it’s too late. If the current starting lineup is able to survive until week six, they should be buoyed by the returns of Irv Smith Jr. and Joe Mixon. Hinish, Autry, Ward, and Reed will also function as useful depth at their respective positions when they return, but it remains to be seen when Ward will be past his legal troubles and subsequent suspension.
2. The Defensive Line is the Star of the Show
Of all position groups on the Houston Texans roster, the defensive line takes the crown for the most populated group at ten players. This is two more players than the total of eight defensive linemen on the 2024 roster, with those extra spots being taken from the defensive backs group. Now, there’s an additional defensive tackle and defensive end, with each position group now standing at an even five spots on the roster. The list of players is very similar to the roster last year, except DT Khalil Davis has been replaced by DT Sheldon Rankins and DT Tommy Togiai, and DE Jerry Hughes has been replaced by DE Darrell Taylor and a healthy DE Dylan Horton.
These moves don’t jump off the screen when taken individually, but when the position group is taken as a whole, it’s very difficult to find any weakness. Replacing Davis with Rankins/Togiai is a massive upgrade that won’t go unnoticed by opposing centers, and the additions of Taylor and Horton will ensure the pass rush remains hot deep into the regular season. You could even go as far to say Houston’s backups on this roster are even better than other team’s starters!
3. Many New Faces at WR and RB – The Offense is in New Hands
Okay, maybe I’m stretching the truth when I say they’re in “new hands” when Stroud, Mixon, and Collins are all still on the team. But, beneath those three big-ticket players is a completely new supporting cast. Out goes WR Stefon Diggs, WR Robert Woods, WR John Metchie, WR Steven Sims, and RB Cam Akers (who was traded to the Minnesota Vikings in week seven of the 2024 season), and in comes WR Christian Kirk, WR Braxton Berrios, WR Jayden Higgins, WR Jaylin Noel, WR Justin Watson, RB Nick Chubb, and RB Woody Marks.
When taking into account the sheer level of turnover on the two positions that will have a largest impact on quarterback CJ Stroud’s “comeback season,” this has to be where Nick Caserio saw room for the most improvement after last year’s disappointing offensive production. It hurts to see a star like Stefon Diggs go, but Caserio has sought an advisable solution by dividing his projected production among several capable slot receivers. Christian Kirk alone may not be able to replicate Diggs, but if you add Jaylin Noel and Braxton Berrios to that mix, you’ll probably get close.
A lot of these new faces have made a name for themselves with their speed and efficiency in the short-passing game, which gives us a clue as to where offensive coordinator Nick Caley’s priorities lie in Texans Offense 3.0. Couple this new offensive scheme with the reality that the Texans were grasping at straws by week 17 last year because of injuries to multiple starting wide receivers, and it’s easy to understand why Caserio went for younger players and kept seven of them on the roster. He does not want injuries at this position in particular to derail the Texans, again.
4. The Offensive Line is Fresher Than Ever
It’s far too early to call, but the preseason performance of Houston’s offensive line has me somehow believing that this position group might be fixed. Two straight years of mediocre offensive line play has kept Stroud on the run when he should be settling down, and this year, Nick Caserio was desperate for the backfield carnage to stop. Similar to what he did with the wide receivers’ room, Caserio hit the reset button at offensive line. Trading franchise left tackle Laremy Tunsil to the Washington Commanders and releasing starting guard Shaq Mason set the tone to a tumultuous offseason, and then former first-round draft pick Kenyon Green to the Philadelphia Eagles showed that Caserio was fully ready to get some new blood along the line. Starting guards and 2025 free agent signings Ed Ingram and Laken Tomlinson will use their talents to fill in the biggest holes in the Texans’ 2024 roster, which is what many fans expected after they were signed in March. What many fans were not expecting was the sudden emergence of center Jake Andrews and rookie tackle Aireontae Ersery.
Claimed off of waivers from the New England Patriots, Andrews arrived in Houston in May fully recovered from a torn meniscus that ended his 2024 season in training camp. For his first camp back from injury, Andrews excelled immediately, snatching the starting center job away from Jarrett Patterson and Juice Scruggs within weeks of donning Battle Red. And who said a torn meniscus could keep a guy down? Then you have Aireontae Ersery, a tackle that the majority of Texans fans hadn’t even heard of until they were yelling his name in exasperation on draft night, coming in as a rookie and quickly stealing the starting left tackle job from veteran Cam Robinson. Even though Robinson is still recovering from a leg injury suffered earlier in camp, the amount of effusive praise levied onto Ersery leads me to believe it’s his job to lose going forward. Talk about getting lucky!
5. Trust in the Young Backup DBs is Strong
Overall, I’d say the most surprising move is the Texans moving on from two longtime backup cornerbacks Myles Bryant and D’Angelo Ross. Preseason viewers can attest to the amount of exhibition action we saw from both of these players the last couple of years, but Ross and Bryant provided far more than just preseason highlights. Both have played significant snaps in regular season, both have made plays in the regular season, and both have made plays on special teams. These were two depth pieces that made contributions to the 2024 season, and even though Ross and Bryant had their detractors, who will they be replaced with? Well, behind starting cornerbacks Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter, there are currently only two other cornerbacks on the roster: Tremon Smith and rookie Jaylin Smith.
Tremon Smith, a former Texan during the 2021-2022 seasons, may not be the lanky, talented backup corner you’d want for a player like Lassiter, he’s at least a star on special teams. Jaylin Smith, an experienced and gadget-filled player with successful seasons both at safety and cornerback while playing at USC, hopes to follow in collegiate teammate Calen Bullock’s footsteps and become an impact player for the Texans right away. He likely won’t get that opportunity as quickly as Bullock considering the level of talent in front of him on the depth chart, but his quality play in the preseason gives me hope that his instincts and toolset can make up for his lack of size at the NFL level. It’s just as well, anyways, since any backup cornerbacks competing for his spot have now been released. Texans brass must believe in both Smith’s abilities enough to get rid of proven backups, especially considering they moved two roster spots formerly reserved for the defensive backfield to the defensive line, instead. Only rocking with four cornerbacks for the season is a big decision, but it shows that Houston is willing to take risks at this position group in order to add depth elsewhere.
It’s a handful of curious cuts, but considering the quantity of new skill position players and the number of Texans on injured reserve, I believe the cuts are justified. Positions of shallow depth, like safety or tight end, will feel a little more stable once Irv Smith Jr. and Jaylen Reed are healthy. Other positions, like the offensive line, sit in a state of far more optimism than they did back in May, which is a testament to how well they’ve absorbed Nick Caley’s offense. Only time will tell, but the strengths on Houston’s roster may end up yielding a complimentary offense and a dominant defense.
What do you think, though? Will this Texans roster end up being the one that takes Houston all the way to a Super Bowl, or are they still a few players away from their peak? Let us know in the comments below!
GO TEXANS!!!
