The Buffalo Bills will not be facing Houston Texans starting right guard in Week 1, a development I don’t think can be understated in its importance.
Although Braden Smith initially was placed on the Texans’ 53-man roster after cutdown down, GM Nick Caserio told reporters on Tuesday Smith will now be placed on IR after suffering an injury during a late-August joint practice, meaning he’ll miss (at least) the first four games of Houston’s 2026 regular season:
For the second-consecutive offseason, the Texans set out to rebuild the offensive line to protect C.J. Stroud and boost run-game efficiency. It’s felt like Houston’s main objective during the entire Stroud era.
Agreeing to terms with free-agent right tackle Braden Smith was the first of two major blocking acquisition — the other being spending a first-round pick on guard Keylan Rutledge.
During the 2025 regular season, Stroud was pressured on 36.4% of his drop backs, ironically, the exact same percentage as Josh Allen. It ranked as the 22nd-highest figure out of 44 qualifying quarterbacks, per Pro Football Focus. Stroud’s 13.4% pressure-to-sack rate was the 10th-lowest in the NFL.
Overall, Stroud went from a 8.9% sack rate in 2024 to a very respectable 5.1% last season.
Houston’s first blocking reconstruction mostly worked.
But veteran do-everything blocker Tytus Howard, who played some right tackle in 2025, signed with the Browns in free agency, and second-year pro Blake Fisher was a liability regardless of which edge of the pocket he protected.
Veteran mountain of a man Trent Brown remained but Houston deemed it necessary to add a super-sturdy right tackle who’d serve as a longer-term upgrade at the position. Which is why Smith was signed on the first day of free agency to a two-year, $25 million deal.
Smith, an unassuming yet ferocious blue-collar blocker, surrendered more than 40 pressures just once in his first eight seasons in Indianapolis and averaged playing 840 snaps each regular season.
While protecting Stroud is priority No. 1, it’s safe to assume Smith’s run-blocking prowess can explain why Houston immediately targeting him in free agency.
During his Colts career, Smith established himself as one of the premier run-blocking right tackles in football. And writing the Texans struggled mightily on the ground would be kind. They finished 30th in rush EPA per play and 32nd in Success Rate. Rookie Woody Marks led the team with 703 yards on the ground at just 3.6 yards per tote.
While Houston made other transactions this offseason with run-game bolstering in mind — like signing David Montgomery — Smith (and Rutledge, a run-blocking specialist at Georgia Tech) was the investment with the most expected positive impact on that phase of the game for the Texans offense.
And, of course, we’re fully aware of Buffalo’s shoddy run defense in 2025 — last in rush EPA per play and 28th in Success Rate.
While an injury to a right tackle isn’t incredibly newsworthy in most cases — and Brown is a somewhat serviceable replacement — the Smith-to-IR news is clearly good for both the Bills pass-rushing and run-stopping efforts for the first game of the 2026 season.
