{"id":19287,"date":"2025-05-03T00:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T00:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/19287\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T00:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T00:43:12","slug":"one-of-texans-2025-games-named-among-10-best-to-watch-this-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/19287\/","title":{"rendered":"One of Texans’ 2025 games named among 10 best to watch this season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Houston Texans’ <\/a>2025 regular season schedule won’t be released until May 14, but we’ve known who they’ll face for awhile. After securing a second AFC South division title<\/a>, Houston will take on every other first-place team in the conference. The Texans<\/a> will also play the entire NFC West, AFC West, AFC South and Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A lot of those games will be fun to watch as the Texans plan to contend for a Super Bowl<\/a> and defend their divisional crown, but\u00a0NFL.com’s Kevin Patra<\/a>\u00a0thinks one of their matchups will be among the 10 best to watch next fall.<\/p>\n

Patra picked Houston’s home showdown against the Denver Broncos<\/a> as the No. 8 game to watch in 2025 because could mark a playoff spot for one roster. Houston might have an easier path to the postseason in 2025 because of the division, but a win for the Broncos could alter their pathway to a promising third season under Sean Payton.<\/p>\n

“Perhaps I’m taking my personal preference to the next level by shoehorning in two teams I’m intrigued by entering the season. I love what the Broncos did this offseason, bolstering an already underrated defense and giving Sean Payton more toys to play with on offense,” Prata wrote. “Second-round pick\u00a0RJ Harvey<\/a>\u00a0should soar in Payton’s scheme. I’m equally interested in how the changes in Houston pan out with a completely overhauled offensive line, two Iowa State<\/a> Cyclone rookie receivers (Jayden Higgins<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jaylin Noel<\/a>), and a new OC in Nick Caley. Will\u00a0C.J. Stroud<\/a>\u00a0shake off the Year 2 doldrums? Styles make fights, and I can’t wait to see DeMeco Ryans’ physical defense take on Payton’s dice-you-up offense.”<\/p>\n

Houston and Denver look to be rising teams in the AFC and are hopeful long-term forces in their respective divisions under competent quarterbacks. Bo Nix, who guided the Broncos to a 10-win season, might have a sophomore slump similar to C.J. Stroud. He could also reach new expectations and take over as a top-five quarterback in the conference.<\/p>\n

Stroud’s surge is essential for Houston to enter the conversation of a legitimate AFC powerhouse this fall. He’s led a pair of double-digit win seasons, but there’s a clear divide between where the Texans sit and the Bills or Ravens<\/a> land. Should Stroud be more like his 2023 version in 2025, the pieces are in play for a 12-plus win campaign.<\/p>\n

Both the Texans and Broncos should be vying for their respective divisional crowns and a high playoff seed. If it happens earlier, this will just be another blockbuster matchup between two NFL standouts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Houston Texans’ 2025 regular season schedule won’t be released until May 14, but we’ve known who they’ll face…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2056],"tags":[204,80,115,1466,247,265,184,117,210,8048,925,232,211,522,231,258,19,7,221,253,2368,521,535,248,267,88,6,15,8049,245,537,530,169,1602,1982,327,9,266,376,209,250,222,1980],"class_list":{"0":"post-19287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-204","9":"tag-2025-nfl-draft","10":"tag-afc","11":"tag-afc-south","12":"tag-american","13":"tag-american-football","14":"tag-baltimore","15":"tag-baltimore-ravens","16":"tag-bay","17":"tag-bo","18":"tag-bo-nix","19":"tag-broncos","20":"tag-buccaneers","21":"tag-cyclones","22":"tag-denver","23":"tag-denver-broncos","24":"tag-draft","25":"tag-football","26":"tag-houston","27":"tag-houston-texans","28":"tag-houstontexans","29":"tag-iowa","30":"tag-iowa-state-cyclones-football","31":"tag-national","32":"tag-national-sports","33":"tag-news","34":"tag-nfl","35":"tag-nfl-draft","36":"tag-nix","37":"tag-overall","38":"tag-overall-positive","39":"tag-positive","40":"tag-ravens","41":"tag-smg","42":"tag-smg-timely","43":"tag-south","44":"tag-sports","45":"tag-sports-news","46":"tag-state","47":"tag-tampa","48":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","49":"tag-texans","50":"tag-timely"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}