The Houston Texans aren’t regarded as one of the better teams in the NFL with less than three months before the start of the 2020 regular season.
According to Doug Farrar of the Touchdown Wire, the Texans are No. 22 in the NFL, and the reason for their low ranking has to do with the trading of All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins.
Speaking of former Belichick assistants… well, there’s whatever the heck Texans head coach and ostensible general manager Bill O’Brien has done to his roster in the last year or so. Those #FreeDeshaun hashtags that popped up when O’Brien traded DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals aren’t going away anytime soon, and while Watson remains an estimable talent, there’s only so much he can do with an offense leaking talent. Running back David Johnson, who came over in the Hopkins trade, would be a valuable addition if this was 2016, which it isn’t. The receiver trio of Brandin Cooks, Randall Cobb, and Kenny Stills is decent enough, and Will Fuller will add a deep threat when healthy. But the defense has questions from the front to the secondary, and with O’Brien in charge, it’s easy to see a possible perch off the cliff after the Texans’ disastrous faceplant against the Chiefs in the 2019 playoffs.
As much criticism as O’Brien has earned, much of it centers around the Texans’ inability to get out of the divisional round of the playoffs. The only time since 2014 that the Texans fell off a cliff was in 2017 after injuries ravaged the roster, including Watson tearing his ACL. Houston was 3-4 when that happened, and lost eight of their next nine games down the stretch without J.J. Watt, Whitney Mercilus, C.J. Fiedorowicz, or Watson available. The club also traded left tackle Duane Brown to the Seattle Seahawks.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are No. 29, the Indianapolis Colts are No. 12, and the Tennessee Titans No. 8.
