Feb. 10, 2026, 11:20 a.m. CT<\/p>\n
We’re nearly 48 hours removed from the\u00a0Seattle Seahawks<\/a>‘ dominant outing in a 29-13 win<\/a> over the New England Patriots<\/a> in Super Bowl LX out at Levi Stadium.<\/p>\n What does that mean? Sights are set on 2027, and the odds of the Houston Texans<\/a> making a run next season toward Los Angeles for a shot at Super Bowl LXI.<\/p>\n The Texans<\/a> are well-equipped to make another postseason push for a championship next season, especially with 10 starters returning on defense, including Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Will Anderson Jr. On top of that, the Texans<\/a> return Pro Bowl wideout Nico Collins, defensive backs Kamari Lassiter and Derek Stingley Jr., running back Woody Marks and quarterback C.J. Stroud.<\/p>\n Are national pundits buying into a resurgence for the 2026 season, culminating in a trip to SoFi Stadium? The Athletic’s staff compiled their rankings as a staff and determined a consensus positioning when discussing the Texans as an AFC threat. In the end, the publication gave Houston its highest grade among every national website at No. 8, but the comments were far from kind.<\/p>\n Much like the Seahawks<\/a>, Houston had a defense good enough to win a Lombardi Trophy this season, but unlike Sam Darnold’s postseason success, Stroud’s turnover ratio not only cost the AFC South franchise a trip out west, but now has also placed a gloomy outlook on its future.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n “The Texans probably thought after Stroud\u2019s rookie season that this would be the offseason they would start working on a mega-extension for their young quarterback,” Josh Kendall wrote. “But the last two seasons have raised a lot of questions. In that time, Stroud is 25th in the league in EPA per dropback (0.01), and he threw four interceptions in a 28-16 divisional-round playoff loss to the Patriots. That defense is really good, though.<\/p>\n There’s a point toward blaming most of the failures on Stroud’s regression. Two years ago, the No. 2 overall pick posted the highest passer rating and completion percentage for a rookie quarterback in the postseason. In one game against the Patriots went 20-of-47 passing for 212 yards and one touchdown with a career-low passer rating of 28.<\/p>\n His second interception was returned for a touchdown by All-Pro returner Marcus Jones, marking the first pick-six of his career. Stroud made history for the wrong reason against the Patriots, joining\u00a0Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>\u00a0quarterback Trevor Lawrence and former\u00a0Seattle Seahawks<\/a>\u00a0quarterback Russell Wilson as the only quarterbacks since 2000 to total four interceptions in the first half of a postseason game.<\/p>\n He finished the playoffs with two touchdown passes and seven turnovers.<\/p>\n Everything should be prioritized for building around Stroud. The offensive line wasn’t terrible and showed improvement in Year 1 of the Nick Caley era, allowing just 23 sacks<\/a>. Having back wide receiver Tank Dell in the passing attack should elevate Stroud’s metrics, thus leading to more consistency in the passing game.<\/p>\n Free agency will be crucial toward elevating Houston’s overall status asa legitimate contender. Entering the offseason, Houston is projected to have less than $6 million, but that could expand to over $40 million with contract restructures and extensions with proven contracts.<\/p>\n Elsewhere around the league, the Seahawks<\/a> are ranked No. 1, the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> come in at No. 2 and the Patriots<\/a> round out the top three as the leaders toward a Super Bowl run at SoFi Stadium next fall. To view The Athletic’s entire 2026 way-too-early power rankings, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Texans own eight picks in the upcoming NFL draft, including four picks in the top 70.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 10, 2026, 11:20 a.m. CT We’re nearly 48 hours removed from the\u00a0Seattle Seahawks‘ dominant outing in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[95878,7,221,253,2368,6,96520,96521,96028,95882,95887,97087,96723,95953,101059,95924,96682,97090,95888,96683,96685,95895,96681,96686,96680,96687,96684,96678,95899,96362,96163,95977,96177,95902,95883,100712,95934,97222,222,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-743014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-texans","12":"tag-houstontexans","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-sstssportsnfltexans","15":"tag-sstsntexans","16":"tag-tagafc-south","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagamerican-football-conference","19":"tag-tagbreaking-news-social","20":"tag-tagderek-stingley-jr","21":"tag-taghouston-texans","22":"tag-tagkamari-lassiter","23":"tag-taglos-angeles-rams","24":"tag-tagmadden-nfl","25":"tag-tagmarcus-jones","26":"tag-tagnfl","27":"tag-tagnfl-draft","28":"tag-tagnfl-films","29":"tag-tagnfl-hub","30":"tag-tagnfl-junkies","31":"tag-tagnfl-mvp","32":"tag-tagnfl-overreactions","33":"tag-tagnfl-playoffs","34":"tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","35":"tag-tagnico-collins","36":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","37":"tag-tagrussell-wilson","38":"tag-tagsam-darnold","39":"tag-tagseattle-seahawks","40":"tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","41":"tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","42":"tag-tagsports-news","43":"tag-tagtank-dell","44":"tag-tagtrevor-lawrence","45":"tag-tagwill-anderson-jr","46":"tag-texans","47":"tag-typestory"},"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\/743014","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=743014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}