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DJ Bien-AimeApr 13, 2026, 11:00 AM<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>DJ Bien-Aime covers the Houston Texans for ESPN. He joined ESPN in July of 2022 after covering the New York Jets for the New York Daily News. He’s a former athlete who finished his college career at Louisville. You can catch DJ on ESPN Radio on his show “Talkin’ Texans.”<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n HOUSTON — The 2026 NFL draft<\/a> (8 p.m. ET on ESPN, ABC, ESPN App) will start on April 23 in Pittsburgh. The Houston Texans<\/a> are scheduled to make eight of the draft’s 257 picks<\/a>, beginning with the No. 28 overall selection in the first round Thursday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n During the three-day event (Rounds 2-3 on April 24 and Rounds 4-7 on April 25), we will update this page with analysis on every pick.<\/p>\n A full list of Texans’ selections are below, in addition to positional needs.<\/p>\n NFL draft coverage: Round 1: No. 28<\/p>\n Round 2: No. 38<\/p>\n Round 2: No. 59<\/p>\n Round 3: No. 69<\/p>\n Round 4: No. 106<\/p>\n Round 5: No. 141<\/p>\n Round 5: No. 167<\/p>\n Round 7: No. 243<\/p>\n Top three needs<\/a>: IOL, DT, CB.<\/p>\n Get ready for the 2026 NFL draft \u2022 Mocks: Kiper<\/a> | Miller<\/a> | Reid<\/a> | Yates<\/a> The focus for Houston is finding emerging players who could become starters at the interior offensive line and defensive tackle. Right now, Houston has a guard duo of Wyatt Teller<\/a> and Ed Ingram<\/a>, along with Jake Andrews<\/a> at center. Ingram just signed a three-year deal, but Houston needs a long-term answer on the left side.<\/p>\n Since coach DeMeco Ryans arrived in 2023, the Texans have rotated through starting defensive tackles. It’s time for a long-term answer to pair with Danielle Hunter<\/a> and Will Anderson Jr<\/a>. off the edge. With cornerback, it’s more about depth, just in case Jalen Pitre<\/a>, Derek Stingley Jr<\/a> or Kamari Lassiter<\/a> suffers an injury.<\/p>\n The Texans have to go heavy on offensive line in this draft, right? Right???<\/p>\n Houston doesn’t have a choice because it needs long-term answers at guard and center. The Texans plan to draft offensive linemen to have young, cost-effective talent that can develop over time. The Texans have veteran starters in right guard Ed Ingram<\/a>, right tackle Braden Smith<\/a> and guard Wyatt Teller<\/a>, but none of their deals prevents Houston from replacing them as early as this season if the rookies show immense promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DJ Bien-AimeApr 13, 2026, 11:00 AM CloseDJ Bien-Aime covers the Houston Texans for ESPN. He joined ESPN in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[7,221,253,2368,6,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-865503","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-houstontexans","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116397170129488780","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865503","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=865503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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