In terms of the lengthy anticipation and then the breakneck speed with which it comes and goes, the NFL Draft is a lot like Christmas. As a fan, you think about it, and prepare for it, for weeks and weeks (teams themselves prepare year round), it finally arrives, the gifts come rapid fire (in this case, the gifts are new players), and then POOF! It’s done, in what feels like minutes (it’s really three days).

Houston Texans fans and NFL fans at large went through that annual experience again this past weekend, as the NFL staged the 2025 NFL Draft in a blue blood football city, up in Green Bay. The city did an amazing job hosting a crowd of over 200,000 in a city whose population is 107,000.

It remains to be seen if the 32 teams did as good job drafting as Green Bay did hosting the event. The Houston Texans wound up selecting a total of nine players. After trading out of the first round on Thursday night, the Texans crushed Night 2 of the draft, coming away with two wide receivers sandwiched around a tackle, and capping it off with a defensive back (numbers are round/overall selection slot):

2/34. JAYDEN HIGGINS, WR, Iowa State
2/48. AIREONTAE ERSERY, OL, Minnesota
3/79. JAYLIN NOEL, WR, Iowa State
3/97. JAYLIN SMITH, CB, USC

On Saturday afternoon, after copious amounts of maneuvering and trading back into the draft using picks from next season, the Texans came away with five more players:

4/116. WOODY MARKS, RB, USC
6/187. JAYLEN REED, S, Penn State
6/197. GRAHAM MERTZ, QB, Florida
7/224. KVONTE HAMILTON, DT, Rutgers
7/255. LUKE LACHEY, TE, Iowa

A few thoughts on what was largely a productive weekend for the Texans:

This class will go how the two Iowa State wide receivers go
When Matthew Golden, the wide receiver out of Texas and Houston native, was selected with the 23rd overall pick, that was a real kick in the groin, with the Texans sitting at 25th overall. However, with the trade back from 25th to 34th overall, the Texans recovered nicely early in Day 2, taking Higgins, and then later that night, taking Noel at pick 79 overall. It’s an interesting dynamic, as Higgins’ closest comparison for current players is his new teammate, Nico Collins, and Noel’s closest comp is either Christian Kirk or Tank Dell. There is an opening for an outside receiver opposite Collins, and Higgins immediately becomes the frontrunner for that spot. How Noel gets mixed in will be very interesting, as he could have a Tank Dell rookie season type effect.

Is Aireontae Ersery enough of an addition to feel like offensive line was addressed?
If you were one of the Texan fans hoping that the Texans would emerge from the draft this weekend with a much deeper offensive line room going forward, you came away disappointed. First, the run on offensive lineman prior to the Texans pick at 25 was frustrating, especially Donovan Jackson, Houston native, going one pick before the Texans were on the clock. Ersery, though, was a nice recovery on the second day of the draft. He is a massive human being and an elite athlete, who many experts viewed as a late first round pick. The Texans got him at 48.

Drafting a quarterback, particularly Graham Mertz, was a little strange
To be clear, I have no issue with the Texans taking a quarterback on the third day of the draft. If they see something in one of these guys that is worth developing, then I’m cool with that. Hell, Tom Brady was a sixth round pick, back in 2000! That said, I thought there were two things that were a tad askew with the Texans’ pick of Florida’s Graham Mertz in the sixth round. First, they traded up for him, which felt like a waste of draft capital. Second, I just don’t think he is very good. Again, I’m not in the interview rooms with the prospects, so maybe he blew the Texans away, but if I had to guess, Mertz has a better chance of being a Houston Roughneck in two years than a Houston Texan.

These drafts take on greater importance with some of the contracts that will be handed out soon
So the Texans come away with nine new players, which obviously represents a surplus in a seven round draft. Next year, they’re sitting on extra picks in the second and fourth rounds of the 2026 draft. These picks all take on increased importance over the next couple years, as the team’s core of young players gets more and more expensive, with each second contract doled out. Nico Collins, Derek Stingley, and Jalen Pitre all got paid in the past year. Will Anderson and C.J. Stroud are going to have astronomical deals when they happen a year from now. The cheap labor of rookie draft classes MUST come through and produce, if the Texans are going to compete for a Super Bowl.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.