The Texans are a good team as currently constructed, but they have a chance to reach a truly elite level if they can bolster a few position groups \u2014 and it all starts with free agency.<\/p>\n
When you look at the roster, it\u2019s clear the offensive line needs significant upgrades. Houston has its left tackle in Aireontae Ersery, who was drafted in the second round last year. However, there have been whispers that he could slide over to right tackle, which would create another need at left tackle.<\/p>\n
Outside of Ersery, the Texans likely need at least three new starters up front. Their left guard last season was Tytus Howard, who was traded to Cleveland in a somewhat surprising move considering he had been a solid player.<\/p>\n
At center, Jake Andrews handled the starting duties but struggled for much of the season, and it feels likely Houston will look to upgrade that position.<\/p>\n
At right guard, the Texans had Ed Ingram, who they acquired in a trade from the Minnesota Vikings. Ingram played well for Houston, but he\u2019s now headed for free agency and could receive a better deal elsewhere, meaning the Texans may be preparing for his departure.<\/p>\n
Houston recently re-signed right tackle Trent Brown to a one-year deal worth up to $7 million. Brown played well when healthy last season, but he dealt with several injuries and was unavailable for the Divisional Round, which only made things more difficult for quarterback C.J. Stroud.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible the Texans envision Brown as their Week 1 starter, but it\u2019s more likely he will serve as a depth option.<\/p>\n
The good news is Houston has the flexibility to create significant cap space through a few contract restructures as free agency begins next week.<\/p>\n
Expect the Texans to add multiple offensive linemen, though they may avoid paying top dollar for one single player. Rumors have already surfaced about potential interest in former Browns All-Pro Wyatt Teller and Colts right tackle Braden Smith.<\/p>\n
If Houston can come away from free agency with even one of those players \u2014 along with another starting-caliber lineman \u2014 they\u2019ll be in much better shape as they move closer to the 2026 NFL Draft and finally take that next step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texans are a good team as currently constructed, but they have a chance to reach a truly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[7,221,253,80647,23939,7162,2368,6,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-850950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-texans","11":"tag-houston-texans-analysis","12":"tag-houston-texans-free-agency","13":"tag-houston-texans-offseason","14":"tag-houstontexans","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116339516782954930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850950","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=850950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}