Really heartbreaking loss overall, as I believe this was the best Texans team to make the Divisional Round of the DeMeco Ryans/C.J. Stroud era, and maybe, just maybe the best Texans team ever. I know it’s hard to look at them like that after last night, but this defense was historically good at all three levels.
The offense, despite relying heavily on rookie left tackle Aireontay Ersery, three new free agent starters (Jake Andrews, Ed Ingram, and Trent Brown), and a bevy of rookie skill position players, still came on strong in the final month of the season and looked capable of almost anything.
Last night, the quarterback that we were certain was the franchise leader just a couple months ago put everything in question…which is shocking. Even with how bad that sounded, I’m going to stick to my guns with Stroud and hope that these last two weeks were just an aberration for him, not the norm. I think he’ll be better next season with more time behind this offensive line and Houston addressing its biggest holes on offense.
An extension would’ve been nice to handle this year, but I would pick up Stroud’s fifth-year option and table extension talks to later this year. As for key positions that need addressed on offense I think: G, TE, RB, S, T – in that order. You can’t expect Trent Brown, as good as he was, to be a long term solution at RT, so I think Tytus Howard should move back there, and the Texans should embrace what they stubbornly ignored last year and either pay for a good LG or draft one. TE was also a position of need this year, especially after Schultz went down yesterday. Lastly, another good RB to compliment Woody Marks would be ideal, either through the draft or free agency. Houston wanted to be a smash mouth team this year and couldn’t do it, but with a better interior line, RBs, and TEs, they should be able to succeed. Also, pay the crap out of Ed Ingram.