We get to the last in the series of the look at the hot seat. In the last two editions we looked at C.J. Stroud and Nick Caley. The next guy is a little higher on the ladder. When we look at the power structure of the Texans we know that no one is currently on the hot seat. You don’t get on the hot seat after going to the playoffs three years in a row. However, we know that things sometimes go sideways and when they go sideways there is always someone to blame.
DeMeco Ryans might be on the coldest seat in the NFL. He is a beloved figure in Houston and his defenses are the best in the NFL. More importantly, he has a magnetic personality that fans love. So, it isn’t Ryans that will be on the hot seat. Instead it will be general manager Nick Caserio. Caserio has been with the organization longer and has a more spotty track record. It is definitely a mixed bag.
The decision on coaches and executives when you don’t quite reach the top is one of the more difficult in sports. Guys have been somewhat successful and yet you get to a point where you worry that they can get you over the hump. Sometimes a new voice can get you to the next level, but most of the time you don’t get back to where you were before, but the whispers from fans and commentators alike can become deafening.
While the Texans have built themselves quite the defense, they have struggled on the offensive side of the football. In the last two off-seasons, the team has traded its best offensive lineman and tried to cobble together the rest of middle to lower class free agents and draft picks. It didn’t work in 2024. It didn’t work in 2025. We will have to see if it works in 2026.
Perspective is a hard thing for fans and analysts alike. Is failure on one unit of the gridiron tantamount to overall failure? That’s a hard question to answer. If that failure prevents you from winning the ultimate prize it might be significant enough to derail a career. On the other hand, there are no perfect executives out there. Every general manager has holes. Some are really good at finding linemen, but they struggle finding other things.
Some struggle in free agency. Others struggle in the draft. The question is which flaws you are willing to live with. Chris Ballard of the Indianapolis Colts is great at building offensive lines. He has had a revolving door at quarterback since Andrew Luck retired. Would you rather have him at the helm? You might have a great running game, but the Colts have sputtered overall.
Still, frustration being what it is, we could easily foresee a future where another struggling offensive line gets Caserio in trouble. More than the struggles themselves is how the whole line has been handled. Two years in a row they have traded expensive players and tried to go with a more affordable route. It makes some sense in the grand scheme of things. You have to afford the Will Andersons and Nico Collins of the world. You have to pay for Derek Stingley Jr. and eventually C.J. Stroud as well. You have to scrimp and save somewhere.
That means you have to do some superior scouting. That means you have to take the right risks. It means you might to have roll the dice on some injury prone players. So far, most of those gambles have not paid off on the offensive line. For every Aironatae Ersery there is a Blake Fisher. For every Ed Ingram there is a Kenyon Green. For every Trent Brown there is a Jake Andrews. You get the idea. The offensive line is a position where you can’t afford to bat .500.
The good news is that Jake Andrews is the only failure currently on the roster and he seems slated to either be on the bench or the unemployment line. The rest are on other rosters or unemployed themselves. Getting rid of failures is one thing, but replacing them with quality players is something else. The team is rolling the dice on some other guys this season. We will see if they come up snake eyes or not.