Texans mailbag: After revamping its roster, is Houston a Super Bowl contender? (2024)

Bill O’Brien made a couple of big moves during cutdown weekend and left The Athletic’s readers with plenty of questions about the Texans.

This mailbag touches on new wide receiver Kenny Stills’ potential role both on the field and in the locker room, the future of Houston’s GM-less front office and much more. Let’s get to it.

How are you feeling about the new depth at WR? — Nicolás M.

The Texans might now have the best quartet of receivers in the league. Kenny Stills — who has played about a third of his snaps in the slot the past three years and averaged 16 yards per reception in his career — can fill in for Keke Coutee or Will Fuller. Even when those two are healthy, Stills should still find his way onto the field. The Texans have a nice mix of receiving talent that they can use in different ways depending upon the matchup.

“Depending on the route concept, depending on the coverage and what scheme they’re doing on the defense, it’s going to determine who gets the ball,” quarterback Deshaun Watson said. “My job is just to find the open guy and trickle it down and get points on the board to help this team win.

“As far as getting everyone involved, we all understand that this is a team sport. We’re going to do it for each other. If it’s Will that has three touchdowns and Hop (DeAndre Hopkins) has zero, if we win then Hop is going to be just fine. Vice versa, and same with Kenny and all the other guys. We all work together and we all cheer each other on, there’s no egos or anyone hating on each other.”

Considering the Texans already had a good set of receivers before the trade, did Houston pay too much for Stills? Laremy Tunsil was the centerpiece of the trade with Miami, but the deal’s two first-round picks alone surpassed the previous price for a franchise left tackle. So let’s say Houston paid a second-round pick for Stills. That’s a hefty price for a fourth wide receiver. But maybe we should get used to O’Brien, the Texans’ de facto GM, placing less value on draft picks than much of the NFL.

How was Stills viewed inside the Dolphins locker room by the players? As a leader or a distraction? — Joshua R.

I wondered the same thing when the Texans traded for Stills, and based on this profile of him from The Undefeated, it appears he was far more of a leader than a distraction. The Dolphins named him a captain, and he regularly reached out to the community through the Miami Dolphins Football Unites program and team owner Stephen Ross’ foundation, the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality.

Stills has kneeled for the national anthem the past two seasons, and he previously told Dolphins reporters that he planned to do so again this year. He has yet to speak to Houston reporters, but I imagine Stills will kneel before Texans games this season, despite playing for a franchise founded by the late Bob McNair, who, when players first started kneeling, famously said “we can’t have inmates running the prison.”

“Relative to any social justice initiatives, you guys know that my history here with the Houston Texans is I love the players,” O’Brien said when asked about Stills’ history of kneeling for the anthem. “I have the players’ back and we communicate about those things. I’m not going to get into any discussions that I would have with any player about those things, but I support the players in social justice initiatives.”

Are the Texans still planning on hiring Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio as GM next year? Would he come in and clean house, including O’Brien, or would the front office be the Patriots’ JV team? — Jamie S.

As Houston’s clash with the Patriots over tampering proved, there’s mutual interest between Caserio and the Texans. New England could only retain him by enforcing a previously unknown clause in his contract.

That contract reportedly runs through the 2020 draft, though, so Caserio could join Houston after that. Maybe the interest between the two parties will remain, or maybe the Texans will decide that their current front office structure works better than a traditional, GM-led one.

“Look, there’s 32 teams and most teams have a GM; I understand, I really do, but the fact that we have a team of people is just something that maybe people will have to get used to,” O’Brien said. “We have a team of really bright people that work very well together. I think that it’s just a group of guys and women that work very well together to try and come up with best decisions for the team.”

If Caserio comes to Houston, don’t expect him to fire O’Brien and reboot the operation. If anything, adding Caserio would represent team chairman Cal McNair further buying into O’Brien’s attempt at copying the Patriots. Jack Easterby, who joined the franchise this year as executive vice president of team development, was most recently New England’s character coach.

Is there any way that a potential strike after the current CBA expires could affect the 2021 first and second rounders we now owe the Dolphins? — Ben H.

Not that I can foresee, Ben. When there was last a work stoppage, in 2011, the league still held its draft. Rookies just weren’t able to participate in a typical offseason program.

And in case you forgot, Houston sent a 2020 first-round pick to the Dolphins, too.

Whenever the players and owners agree to a new CBA, expect draft picks to remain close to as valuable as they are now. No one seems in a hurry to inflate rookie contracts again.

Have you heard any explanation for the Texans leaving so much cap space unused the past two seasons (I believe they have roughly $30 million in unused space, fourth most in the league, after not using $20 million in space last year, sixth most)? Yet, putting aside proper compensation for (Jadeveon) Clowney, they cut left tackle Matt Kalil for cost savings reasons. It seems odd for a team with pressure to contend not to use this space for at least short term deals (like Kalil’s), even for backups, given the inevitability of injuries in the NFL. Just last year we lost a starting tackle in Week 1, in which case Kalil could come in handy, unless he’s being cut for performance reasons, which would seem incongruous since he was allegedly set to start at left. — Ryan S.

The Texans’ lack of spending with a starting quarterback on a rookie contract has been a bit baffling. And no, there hasn’t been much of an explanation for it. But if the Texans were this aggressive in the trade market with O’Brien leading the way, there’s reason to believe they’ll behave similarly in the free agent market, too.

At the very least, the Texans will soon have to spend big on new deals for Watson and Tunsil. By not agreeing to an extension with Tunsil before executing the trade with Miami, the Texans handed the left tackle all of the leverage he needs to become the highest-paid offensive tackle in history.

As for Kalil: Had the Texans not traded for Tunsil, I believe O’Brien would’ve started him at left tackle but eventually moved on from him. Kalil couldn’t stay healthy, and when he was on the field, he wasn’t very good. Despite potentially making up to $7.5 million this season had he not been cut, I’m not sure paying Kalil offered that much of an upgrade over current swing tackle Roderick Johnson, a 2017 fifth-round pick who will make $570,000 this year and can be retained for relatively cheap again in the offseason, when he’ll be a restricted free agent.

Johnson appeared to outplay Kalil during camp, but maybe O’Brien liked the experience Kalil brought as a seventh year pro. That could be valuable in a starting role. But is it worth paying a premium for him in a backup capacity? Probably not.

Houston’s starting right tackle, Seantrel Henderson — the player whose Week 1 injury you referred to in your question — is playing on a one-year deal. If he stays healthy and plays well this season, he’ll be more expensive moving forward. Rather than keep him, the Texans could try Johnson there after a year of grooming him as the swing tackle. Or they could move first-round pick Tytus Howard to right tackle.

This group GM talk feels like a cowardly way of giving O’Brien cover to be the GM without having to take full responsibility for it. Does anyone outside of the organization really know how the GM functions are being distributed? Who has the final say on big decisions such as the recent trades? — Daniel G.

I disagree, Daniel. If the setup is designed to give him cover, it’s not doing a very good job. As the only public face of the Texans front office, O’Brien has shouldered all of the criticism for the moves Houston has made since firing general manager Brian Gaine.

O’Brien told reporters this week that he was the person talking to Dolphins general manager Chris Grier, and he’s been the person making the final phone calls in the other deals Houston has made: shipping Clowney to Seattle, acquiring Duke Johnson from Cleveland and trading Martinas Rankin to Kansas City for Carlos Hyde.

As for who else makes up the front office “team,” as O’Brien likes to call it, here’s who he mentioned earlier this week: “I’m not sitting in an office by myself. (Senior vice president of football administration) Chris Olsen is not sitting in an office by himself. Jack Easterby is not sitting in an office by himself. (Director of player personnel) Matt Bazirgan is not sitting in an office by himself. We’re in a room, and we’re debating. We’re talking. We’ve been doing it for a long time over many different things, whether it’s how to set the weight room up, or how to set the cafeteria up, or the locker room, or some of the things that went on (during cutdown weekend).”

Are the Texans signing linebacker Brandon Marshall? — Johnathan R.

A source confirmed that the team worked out the eighth year pro, but I don’t suspect a deal coming soon. The Texans like their linebacker depth and probably wanted to get a look at Marshall in case one of their current players gets injured.

Since nothing this front office does or says makes sense anymore, do you get the feeling that this many highly questionable moves will actually result in our first real push as a contender, or are things going to get a lot worse before they get better? Also, why should we be confident that O’Brien will be able to maximize the offense’s talent and potential to win us games as a play-caller? That has never been his M.O. — Jason S.

Like my colleagues who assemble The Athletic’s weekly power rankings, I believe the Texans got better in the short term but didn’t do enough to make themselves real Super Bowl contenders. In the AFC, they still sit a tier below the Patriots and Chiefs, plus maybe the Steelers and Chargers.

As for O’Brien’s ability to maximize his offense’s talent: He proved during Watson’s rookie season that he can reconfigure an offense on the fly. He’ll need to do some of that this week, as he tries to get the Texans ready for the Saints while folding in Stills and Tunsil.

When will there be a Texans-centric podcast on The Athletic? — Austin T.

There aren’t currently any plans for one, but our podcast network is continually expanding, so maybe eventually. Make sure to check out all of our national NFL podcasts, and leave ideas for a possible Texans podcast co-host in the comments of this post!

(Top photo of Deshaun Watson: Wesley Hitt / Getty Images)