Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment,
we focus on Houston Texans guard Ed Ingram, who washed out with the Minnesota Vikings, was traded in the offseason to a less stable offensive line, and somehow got MUCH better in the process.
Before the 2025 season began, nobody really knew what the Houston Texans’ offensive line would look like — including the Houston Texans. After a 2024 campaign in which C.J. Stroud was running for his life more often than not, the Texans made as many offseason corrections as they possibly could.
They fired offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, replacing him with replaced by former Los Angeles Rams tight ends coach and passing game coordinator (and longtime New England Patriots assistant) Nick Caley. Houston also promoted assistant offensive line coach Cole Popovich (who found out in 2019 that he is distantly related to legendary NBA coach Gregg Popovich) to the main job, and also put Popovich in charge of the run game. Caley and Popovich had worked together in New England on Bill Belichick’s staffs from 2016-2020, so there was some familiarity already.
The Texans also rearranged the deck chairs. They traded left tackle Laremy Tunsil to the Washington Commanders for draft pick compensation, they traded 2022 15th overall pick Kenyon Green to the Eagles for defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson (who is no longer with the team), and they made a few other acquisitions that didn’t really excite – tackles Cam Robinson and Trent Brown, and guards Ed Ingram and Laken Tomlinson.
Those who are up on such things (and Nate Tice is one of the better football analysts I know) were unimpressed.
You couldn’t blame Nate or anybody else for holding praise. I had more than a few reservations about Houston’s progress myself.
Ingram, who the Minnesota Vikings selected with the 59th overall pick in the second round of the 2022 draft out of LSU, was thought to be a flyer at best in all these moves… and for good reason. It never clicked with Ingram in his first NFL home. He allowed 11 sacks and 63 total pressures in his rookie season (bad numbers for a tackle; HORRIBLE numbers for a guard), and followed that up with five sacks and 42 total pressures allowed in 2023, and five sacks and 24 total pressures allowed in 2024. Ingram’s pressure numbers might have been worse in 2024 but for the fact that he was benched in Week 11 in favor of Dalton Risner, and he never played another snap for the Vikings from then on.
Basically, Ingram was a mess, and nobody expected him to get a ton better in such an undefined offensive line in Houston. But that’s somehow what’s happened.
This season, in 299 pass-blocking reps, Ingram has allowed one sack, two quarterback hits, and seven quarterback hurries. The sack he allowed came in his first game with the Texans against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when he got waylaid in his assignment on a blitz; he hasn’t allowed a quarterback hit since the two he gave up against the Tennessee Titans in Week 4, and he pitched complete pressure shutouts against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 5, and against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 8.
Quite a turnaround, and the Texans can now brag a bit and say that they saw it coming.
“Ed’s continued to improve, his pass rush is being under control, playing better base, playing with his hands better, picking up the stunts and games better, I just like how he’s progressed,” head coach DeMeco Ryans said in mid-August of Ingram’s development in his new environment. “I think Cole [Popovich] has done a really good job with Ed, he’s done a great job. So, I expect him to just continue to improve, and we’ll see where we end up.”
Ingram has been better at picking up stunts and games, though he will get lost at times with those things. But what Ryans said about Ingram playing with a stronger base, and better with his hands? Those things really show up. A guard who used to be all over the place mechanically is now a great power-blocker in the run game. Whether he’s running straight power or working with inside and outside zone, Ingram is now more prone than not to take the defender across from him and just bull him back. When you’re 6’3 and 307 pounds, and overwhelming physical power based on size is not an advantage you have, that leverage had better be on point.
And now, with rookie left tackle Aireontae Ersery, Laken Tomlinson at left guard, center Jake Andrews, Ingram at right guard, and right tackle Tytus Howard, things are solidifying to a point that few expected. This is not yet a dominant offensive line, but there are some pleasant surprises, and that’s more than most would have expected before the season began.
As general manager Nick Caserio said in early October, Ed Ingram has been among the happiest accidents.
“The group that’s been out there over the last however many weeks, they’ve played pretty good football. Ed has done a pretty good job. He has played really good football. Sometimes a change of scenery is good for everybody involved in that situation. He’s played good football. He is one of the top-ranked guards in the league, something ridiculous. I’m not saying he is the best guard in the league. He has played good football.“
Good football is a big upgrade for Mr. Ingram, and the Texans are reaping the unexpected benefits.
