Going into Week 18 of the 2025 NFL season, how good are the Houston Texans? As the playoffs approach with an eight-game winning streak and an 11-5 record, not every team is built the same due to scheduling and injuries, but the Texans seem to be built to win more than just a playoff game this January.

Heading into Sunday’s battle against the Indianapolis Colts, the Texans enter with a 3.2 ranking on the Football Power Index (FPI) rating from ESPN. which is good enough for 8th overall in the NFL.

The Colts, who will start rookie quarterback Riley Leonard in place of veteran Philip Rivers. Following Sunday’s 23-17 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Colts enter Sunday’s contest with a -2.6 ranking on the Football Power Index (FPI), which is good enough for 21st overall in the NFL.

Even if a loss on the road comes back to bite them in two weeks, the Texans are very much still in the playoff running and are the potential favorite to come back and win the AFC South. With a win, Houston still would need a loss from the Jacksonville Jaguars against the Denver Broncos to set up a tiebreaker scenario entering Week 17.

With a win over the Colts and a Jaguars loss to the Titans, the Texans would control first-place in the AFC and host a playoff game in the wild-card round.

FPI is “a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season,” according to ESPN.com.

Here’s a look at how the league’s 32 teams stack up based on FPI going into Sunday’s showdown at NRG Stadium.

NFL FPI rankingsLos Angeles Rams: 6.3Seattle Seahawks: 5.2Philadelphia Eagles: 4.3Green Bay Packers: 4.3San Francisco 49ers: 3.8Detroit Lions: 3.8Baltimore Ravens: 3.7Houston Texans: 3.2Buffalo Bills: 3.1Denver Broncos: 2.8Jacksonville Jaguars: 2.1New England Patriots: 1.8Cincinnati Bengals: 1.7Chicago Bears: 0.6Pittsburgh Steelers: -0.4Dallas Cowboys: -0.8Tampa Bay Buccaneers: -1.5New York Giants: -1.6Kansas City Chiefs: -1.6Indianapolis Colts: -2.6Atlanta Falcons: -3.0New Orleans Saints: -3.4Washington Commanders: -3.6Los Angeles Chargers: 3.9Carolina Panthers: -4.5Arizona Cardinals: -4.7Las Vegas Raiders: -7.1Minnesota Vikings: -7.2Tennessee Titans: -8.1Miami Dolphins: -9.3Cleveland Browns: -9.9New York Jets: -14.8

Kickoff from NRG Stadium is scheduled for noon CT.