Last week I introduced the stages of suck. I’m not going to reiterate all of the stages again. Suffice it to say, we are in the questioning stage. We have open questions on a number of people in the organization. Each week is a referendum on those questions. In order to simplify this process, I am going to look at four figures within the organization and simply update their status from week to week. We start with week four.

Nick Caserio

As usual, we start with the top of the totem pole. The Texans came through with a 26-0 victory on Sunday, so the reflexive reaction would be to assume that everyone looks better in the questioning phase. That is not necessarily the case. In fact, for Caserio there are a couple of major news stories that make him look worse. We should start with the biggest news first.

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We know two things about Joe Mixon. First, he missed the first four games of the season. Secondly, he will not be back until at least mid October based on the Texans own statements. From there, it is wildly speculated that he will not play in 2025 at all. This rant has nothing to do with whether they tell us that or not. Organizations have rules they have to follow and as long as they are following the rules on injury reporting, they don’t have to provide the public with any additional information.

They knew what was going on with him. They knew and did absolutely nothing. They did absolutely nothing while watching Dameon Pierce not perform all preseason. They did nothing while watching Dare Ogunbowale fumble late in week one and get blown up in pass protection in week two. They are continuing to do nothing now. Criticism should always be based on process and not results. They may have lucked into Woody Marks being ready to do more than they thought, but there is no way they could have known that in August. What they did know in August is that Mixon might not be available all season. So, their lead back is gone in a season where you had conference championship aspirations. That’s not a good look.

Then, earlier this week, the Texans traded Cam Robinson to the Cleveland Browns. At first blush, it would seem to be a positive move. You get a pick swap and cut some payroll. However, most of his 2025 salary was actually signing bonus. So, you have now traded Robinson and cut C.J. Gardner-Johnson and are on the hook for a good portion of their contracts. Robinson played all of one game and played it poorly. Also not a good look.

DeMeco Ryans

The stock is way up on Ryans and it has little to do with the 26-0 win. Quite frankly, you are supposed to beat teams like the Titans. What I wanted to know was what he planned to do when things went sideways. The offense was going sideways again. Reportedly, he did not know a lot of the negative things were going on last year. We can debate as to whether Nick Caley was his hire or not, but he stopped doing the same thing he has always done and chose a different road.

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Reportedly, he gave play calling duties to Matt Burke so he could pay more attention to the entire operation. Presumably, that means overseeing what is going on with the offense. At the very least, if things continue to go wrong then he will have a better idea of where the process is breaking down. If he can’t fix it immediately at least he can figure out who is to blame for it.

Nick Caley

I feel better about the offense overall, but that goes with the huge caveat that they were playing the Titans. The offense is still very vanilla. The analogy I would give is a golf cart with a governor. That is the mechanism that restricts the speed of the cart. The Texans are like a golf cart with a governor. Things look so easy for other teams. Other teams seem to have guys wide open or opportunities for big plays. There seems to be a little of that in the Texans offense.

This past Sunday hopefully saw one major issue start to fix itself. It is clear that Woody Marks. Jaylin Noel, and Jayden Higgins are more talented than the guys that were playing in the first three weeks. Smart offensive coordinators find ways to get talented football players on the field and involved in the offense. For instance, Matthew Golden has 11 catches for 126 yards and Higgins has only five catches for the Texans. Is Golden really twice as good as Higgins? The same could be said for Marks as compared to other rookie running backs or Noel and other similar receivers.

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C.J. Stroud

There are two separate questions involving Stroud. The first one is whether he is the long-term quarterback for the Texans. Sunday didn’t definitively answer that question because it was the Titans, but it did suggest that he more likely is the guy. However, is he one of THOSE guys? Everyone seems to be asking the 60 million dollar question. Is he a 60 million dollar quarterback?

As counterintuitive as this might sound, while this past Sunday may have been the best game of the season, it actually cemented for me that is not one of THOSE guys. He is not a Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, or Patrick Mahomes. He isn’t even Justin Herbert or Dak Prescott. He is at best in that next tier of quarterbacks that might include Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield, and Jalen Hurts. Those guys don’t make absolute top end money. Stroud at 40 million per year seems reasonable. At his best, he is a good quarterback that can help a team win if he has a good system and players around him. At 60 million, you need to be one of those guys that can overcome problems. He doesn’t appear to be THAT guy.