Value Of Things: Phase One In The Books

I have to hand it to my colleagues. They really tackled every news story with gusto. Handing the first week of the league year is a lot like drinking water from a firehose. Undoubtedly, some things are going to slip through the cracks. This is particularly true the way the Texans do business. They rarely ever make a big splash (Daniele Hunter in 2024 being the lone exception) and even that never happens on the first day when other teams are spending stupid money.

Like with everything else, we can go by position groups to look at the general outlook on free agency and trades. Obviously, the offensive line seems to be the number one ask for most fans every single year. A part of that is due to the way the team never shops on top of the market. Another part is that they simply have never completely fixed it.

Offensive Line

When you throw a bunch of stuff at the wall, some of it will stick. Last season, the team used the scattershot approach to putting their offensive line together and they opened the period up by reupping Ed Ingram. He was the 12th rated guard in the NFL according to PFF last season out of 79 qualified guards. So, for all of the histrionics over how much Nick Caserio fails to identify linemen, he hit on Ingram. Add him to Trent Brown (who was the 37th rated tackle out of 84 qualified tackles) and you have three solid linemen coming into free agency.

The Texans added Braden Smith (48th ranked tackle) in free agency. This is where things get interesting. Smith played guard in college, but has never played guard at the NFL level. So, was he brought in to compete with Brown for the right tackle spot or was he brought in to slide over to left guard? Either way, the team is exactly where they were when the season ended for arguably less money. I suppose that’s progress.

Every team has that one position they can never seem to fill no matter how hard they try. For the Kansas City Chiefs it is running back. For the Indianapolis Colts it is quarterback. For the Houston Texans it has become left guard. They have Jake Mathews and Jarret Patterson that can come close to league average at center. They still don’t have a left guard. They haven’t had one since Caserio has been in Houston. It looks like they will have to try to draft one.

Defensive Line

The Texans are rearranging things on the defensive line. Officially, they have the same group of starters they had last season when they re-signed Sheldon Rankins to continue starting at defensive tackle. Tim Settle went to the Washington Commanders They also cut Mario Edwards after he failed a physical. So, they still have Tommy Togiai as another defensive tackle and signed defensive end and defensive tackle Logan Hall to provide more depth at that spot.

They also signed defensive end Dominique Robinson to provide some depth at defensive end. He presumably takes the spot of Derek Barnett to provide a rotational defensive end along with Naquan Jones who they also re-signed. As things stand now, they have eight or nine defensive linemen that could conceivably rotate in. They may not be quite as good as last season, but they still have the rest of free agency and the draft to fill in some more holes. In particular, a defensive tackle on draft day seems like a good bet.

Linebacker

The biggest headline here is that E.J. Speed returns on a two year contract. His playing time increased as the season went on to the point where he was virtually in a time share with Henry To’oto’o. They run what could charitably be called a 4-2-5 defense with Jalen Pitre playing a hybrid safety and linebacker position. Still, you need the depth. Otherwise, Christian Harris moves on to Atlanta where he presumably can sit on the bench and hold down another key player from going into the game. To take his place, the Texans brought in Jake Hummel. Hummel has never had even 20 tackles in a season, so he is probably at best a special teams guy and at worst bagging groceries by September.

Secondary

The big name here is safety Reed Blnakenship. This is where perspective becomes important. On the one hand, he has started 46 games in the last three seasons where he has added eight interceptions, 274 combined tackles, and 21 passes defended. So, essentially, the Texans added a starting level safety to play beside Calen Bullock. Of course, the downside is that PFF said he fell off a cliff last year and had only three safeties worse than him.

If we take those numbers at face value, there are three plausible explanations and two of them are beneficial to the Texans. The first explanation is that the new Eagles defensive coordinator did not put Blankenship in a position to succeed. Every player has strengths and weaknesses and when coaches don’t account for those then players can look bad. The hope is that Ryans and company can account for those. The second possibility is that it was just a down year and he will return to the player he was the previous two seasons. Obviously, the last possibility is that rot has set in and he was exposed. Betting on the first two being more accurate is certainly reasonable, but we have to account for the third possibility as well.

Overall

The goal is to be a better football team than you were before. Fortunately, the Texans got by losing really only two key players that played regularly for them last season. They cut Mario Edwards and they let Tim Settle walk. Since both of them played defensive tackle that would seem to be an area of concern for the Texans moving forward. Otherwise, they either held serve or got markedly better on defense. On offense, they replace David Montgomery for Nick Chubb and see Tytus Howard leave for Braden Smith. Tank Dell ends up taking Christian Kirk’s slot. Overall, I think it is pretty fair to say this is a better football team than the one that ended the season and that doesn’t even include the draft or the rest of free agency.