For a sport that is currently not playing on the field, the NFL drives headlines. In particular, the silly season of the tampering period and the opening of free agency are examples of absurdity. The ordinary person gets a new job with a major pay raise, they’ll just post it on LinkedIn and the 5-10% of the contacts that actually knows them will react. A player in the NFL gets that new deal, it will be headlines news. So it went with the Houston Texans, although admittedly, their actions during this
stretch weren’t quite as silly as others.
Wheeling and Dealing: Just over two weeks ago, the Texans sat roughly $10-13M over the salary cap. Thus, priority one, get the cap under control. Hence, Caserio went aggressive on trades, player cuts, and contract restructuring. Some cuts were expected, mainly Joe Mixon. However, the Texans made some other moves that may not have been expected, but they were instrumental in freeing up that vital cap space. Tytus Howard found himself shipped off to Cleveland but given that he immediately got a 3 year/$63M extension to play RT, the Texans saved themselves future money. Houston sent Juice Scruggs and some draft picks to Detroit for David Montgomery, which added $6M in salary, but the team still saved $2M. Then came the restructuring. Stingley and Pitre restructured their deals to free up more cap space, and Caserio signed Danielle Hunter and Dalton Schultz to new deals that were able to help out the cap situation (pending league approval, but the initial disputes on those deals appear minor). By the time of the NFL New Year, Houston turned that over-the-cap number into nearly $30M in cap space to pick up new players.
Cleveland won a couple of battles, but Houston still has scoreboard: Speaking of the Howard trade, most figure that Cleveland won that particular trade, only sending a 5th round pick for what is likely their starting RT for the next couple of seasons. Also, Houston seemingly weakened their offensive line for a Day 3 pick. Throw this in after Houston shipped Cam Robinson off to Cleveland earlier in the 2025 season for another 2027 Day 3 pick, Cleveland can certainly claim they got over on the Houston in these couple of deals. Then again, Cleveland will have a long way to go before they can even hope to come close to even-ing the score with Houston after the Deshaun Watson trade.
Houston liked a lot of the 2025-26 roster: A lot of the moves for the team involved retention of key players. Yes, the team said goodbye to OL Tytus Howard, but they moved quickly to keep other players. OG Ed Ingram returned on a 3-year deal. Along with the extensions for Schultz and Hunter, LB E.J Speed, DB M.J. Stewart, OT Trent Brown, DT Sheldon Rankins, DT Naquan Jones and PK Ka’imi Fairbairn all received new deals that will keep them on the team for at least the next season, if not longer.
Bringing in a Super-Bowl winning Eagles DB: If that headline seems a bit of repeat, well, it is. Last offseason, as part of a trade, CJ Gardner-Johnson came over from the Eagles, with the hope that he would help strengthen the Texans’ already talented secondary. Well, the defense did well, but not due to Gardner-Johnson, who was released after three games. Yet that apparently did not turn off the Texans from pursuing Eagles DBs. Reed Blankenship came over to Houston on a 3-year deal. He is seen as a SS, one capable of a lot of tackles, and during the Eagles Super Bowl run, logged 4 INTs. Hopefully, this one works out a bit better for Houston.
Tackle Depth seems good, but about the interior…With the retention of Brown and the signing of former Colts OT Braden Smith, Houston seems to have some decent options at the tackle position. The team also retained Ingram, which was seen as a major offseason priority, but the team has made no other moves to add to the offensive interior. The loss of Howard removes one the options for the offensive interior, even if Howard rated better at tackle vs. guard. Scruggs is not a huge loss, but aside from Ingram, Houston has Andrews, Patterson, Sow, and Tomlinson to man the interior. You could be forgiven for being less-than-whelmed with that lineup. Granted, most of the better interior linemen signed for big money elsewhere, at rates Houston couldn’t match. Perhaps there are some reinforcements in the draft, but as of right now, the team seems to think that roster continuity and the tackle reinforcements will be enough.
Is Kroeger the right guy? Under the Caserio regime, Houston’s had good fortune with punters. First, Cam Johnston, and then Tommy Townsend. However, Townsend left the team this offseason, joining the Titans on a new contract. Houston then traded a sixth-round pick in 2028 to New Orleans for Kai Kroeger and a throw-in 7th-rounder in 2028. Kroeger was ok, but hard to say that he is an obvious upgrade. Perhaps Frank Ross and the Houston kick coverage units will make this move transparent to the fans. Still, for a team that prides itself on strong defense and solid punting, such a move is not a throwaway discussion.
Silly Season was Sillier Elsewhere: While you might argue about Houston’s moves with this offseason, especially with the offensive interior, the Texans avoided some of the crazier plotlines that dominated this season. Most of the focus fell on the trade-not-trade of Maxx Crosby from Las Vegas to Baltimore. Baltimore sent two 1st round draft picks in an unprecedented move for them to the Raiders for All-Pro caliber DE Maxx Crosby. The shockwaves were palpable. The subsequent rescinding of that trade when Baltimore declared that Crosby failed the physical completely upended the NFL media landscape. The Ravens quickly pivoted to Trey Hendrickson, paying him a lot of money, but keeping those draft picks. Fortunately for the Raiders, they had the cap room for all of those free agents signings, headlined by former Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum, whose contract probably priced most of the top-tier IOL players out of Houston’s range. The quarterback moves were somewhat fascinating, with one-time tank target Tua Tagovailoa cut by Miami, seeing him go to Atlanta to play for the league minimum and giving the suddenly rebuilding Dolphins the biggest dead cap hit in history, only to have him replaced by Malik Willis, the new free-agent QB hope, who got his new deal based on 6 games in Green Bay the past two seasons. Murray will try to resurrect his career in Arizona to match the arc set by Sam Darnold. Kirk Cousins in out in Atlanta, but possibly the Cardinals come calling. Plenty of other moves and intrigue, but this has been quite the free agency kickoff.
Draft Considerations: For Houston, after retaining a good number of contributors and gaining some replacements/depth pieces, they still enter the draft with a few requirements. Reinforcements, particularly quality ones for the offensive interior seem a must. A future DE to replace Hunter seems like a goal for this draft. An explosive offensive playmaker, likely at RB, seems another requirement. Could Houston draft some increased LB depth? They’ll have 8 total picks, including 4 in the first 70 picks, to try to bolster the roster.
Contract Questions: The Texans also still have some other contracts to consider. Foremost involves the next contracts for Will Anderson Jr. and CJ Stroud. Of the two, Anderson seems the most likely to get that big-money deal. With his running mate getting a $40M extension, expect that Anderson will something similar in the AAV realm. As for Stroud, there are more questions than answers. Houston could try to offer a Darnold-type extension, but likely he is thinking higher numbers. However, the playoff debacle still weighs heavy in recent memory. Also, what of LB Azeez Al-Shaair? Coming off his first Pro Bowl season, an extension also seems likely for the veteran LB, but what form will that take?
So much done, but so much more to watch for as we move forward. Will have to stay tuned for further action.
