When Houston Texans general manager Nick Caserio took over the role in January of 2021, he agreed to take the wheel of a sinking ship. The years of Bill O’Brien, Jack Easterby, David Culley and the like had run fan confidence to a near all-time low for Houston sports. Empty seats were often common in NRG, in some part due to the pandemic, in others due to years of team mismanagement.

The glory of Texans teams featuring J.J. Watt, Arian Foster, Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins were a fading memory.

What draws in fans en masse? Star players. Seldom has an offensive lineman made the ticket and merchandise sales stats jump.

After landing arguably the best head coach in Texans history in Demeco Ryans, Caserio then invested in the star player roles. Remember, the previous regime left Caserio strapped with an abysmal salary cap situation and exactly zero 1st and 2nd round picks. Thanks BO’B – ‘preciate ya.

So, what did Nick do? He drafted Davis Mills and Nico Collins. Then signed a lot of vets to cap friendly deals while clearing out the bad contracts.

Mills, while not etching his face onto the NFL Quarterback Mt Rushmore, has quietly become one of the best backup quarterbacks in modern pro ball.

And, if you don’t know who Nico Collins is, you’re not paying attention.

After continuing to clean up the cap mess he inherited, Caserio drafted Derek Stingley Jr., finally took a bite of the non-star apple with a higher pick by drafting Kenyon Green. While Green was a consensus 1st round talent, he failed to live up to his potential, unlike Mills, Collins and Sting. However, this strategy of bringing in star players, alongside a top notch head coach, reignited a fan base that was turning to spring league football, NCAA games and just about anything other than passionately noting for the Texans in the years prior to Caserio’s arrival.

Soon after he landed Jalen Pitre, C.J. Stroud, Will Anderson Jr., Tank Dell, Kamari Lassiter, Callen Bullock and a few other star players.

At this point, no one can argue that this team doesn’t have a core of young, top flight, star players. Not to mention a defense often referred to as “final boss” level.

The question in 2026 that continues to rear up is: why didn’t Nick address the offensive line sooner?

In some respects he did, successfully. In others he did, unsuccessfully. But, ultimately, he needed to put butts in seats first.

Moving Laremy Tunsil out was a solid addition-by-subtraction move. Despite being an all-pro left tackle, Tunsil has never been widely regarded as a “team player” or “highly motivated”. You’d also be hard pressed to find anyone refer to Tunsil as the sort of player who makes the guys around him better. In fact, some rumors say the exact opposite.

And, with offensive lines, individual effort is not nearly as valuable as teamwork.

Drafting Green and Juice Scruggs didn’t pan out. Drafting Aireontae Ersery did.

Hiring offensive line coaches like James Campen, George Warhop, Chris Strausser and Cole Popovich hasn’t paid great dividends yet either. Unlike the defensive coaching staff, the coaches around the Texans offense have yet to shine under Caserio. Particularly the offensive line coaches.

It’s a general managers job to bring in the best possible talent that fits the system. It’s the coaches job to teach, motivate and otherwise get the players to perform to their full potential. Not sure either of those things has happened in regards to the Texans o-line since Gary Kubiak was the head coach.

Either way, Caserio’s initial job was to put butts in seats at NRG. To reignite the fire in the fanbase that was dying out faster than the BESF’s latest attempt to have their own identity. And, he’s done that.

Now, it’s time to shore up the roster so this team can finally get out of the metaphorical red zone and score an NFL championship.

Here’s a quick recap of what’s been done so far in 2026 to make that happen:

Caserio and company have done all these things Adams mentions, and the draft is still weeks away. If they can land a few solid contributors on April 23-25th, and Popovich can actually get the most out of the 2026 Texans offensive line, Caserio will likely go down as the great general manager in Texans history to date.

Stroud, Collins, Dell, David Montgomery, Jayden Higgins and Dalton Schultz will need to do just enough behind that rebuilt offensive line to ensure the efforts of the lights out defense aren’t wasted again. And all the butts in seats will be happy their fandom is #GoTexans!