The Houston Texans may declare left tackle Laremy Tunsil inactive for the Tennessee Titans game, not even dressing him for the Week 17 rematch with their AFC South rivals.
A series of roster moves on Saturday suggests the 10-5 division champions won’t dress the former 2016 first-round pick, who was limited all week in practice with an ankle injury and declared questionable on the final injury report.
On Saturday, the Texans waived defensive lineman Joel Heath, and in a corresponding move they promoted offensive tackle Elijah Nkansah from the practice squad to the active roster.
Dropping Heath is one of the moves the Texans make when they add a player due to an injury at another position.
Case in point: in Week 12, coming off of a 41-7 beat down in Baltimore, safety Jonathan Owens was signed to the active roster from the practice squad as Justin Reid would be out for the rematch with the Indianapolis Colts with a concussion. As a result, the Texans waived Heath.
However, when the club lets go of Heath, it doesn’t mean that he is out of their plans. After they got through Week 12 and Reid was back, they waived Owens and signed Heath back to the active roster.
With Heath dropped for Week 17, the game relatively meaningless in terms of getting out of wild-card weekend, and Tunsil, a Pro Bowl left tackle, battling an ankle injury, all signs point to Nkansah being the swing tackle as tackles Roderick Johnson and Chris Clark help the Texans get through the final 60 minutes of the regular season.
