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Building a better Houston Texans defense
With all the focus on the offense right now, particularly what C.J. Stroud will do in 2026, it seems like a good time to take a look at the defense. Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans and defensive coordinator Matt Burke built one of the best defenses in the NFL last season. Along with secondary […]
Houston Texans Position Outlook: Running Back
Last offseason, it felt like the Texans had a very strong group heading into the regular season. You had Joe Mixon, who, when healthy, is one of the best running backs in the league, penciled in as the starter. You also drafted a young, promising rookie in Woody Marks out of USC, and added a […]
Re-Sign or Replace: Every Houston Texans Offensive Free Agent
In an era of one-year contracts and player-friendly deals, free agency is a significant aspect of the team building process. Especially for the Texans, as they still seek their first AFC Championship appearance, all it could take is one or two key free agent decisions. According to Jason from Over The Cap, the Houston Texans […]
Value of Things: Are the answers in house?
We have spent a great deal of time over the last couple of weeks looking at what is wrong. I have to cop to that myself as we have focused a lot of angst towards C.J. Stroud and deservedly so. Some of that could be labeled as click bait as the odds of Stroud being […]
Post-mortem on the 2025-26 Houston Texans
BIG PICTURE: In one respect, this season was a massive success. The team tied its record for most wins in a regular season, matched its longest regular season winning streak and counting the playoffs, set the franchise winning streak record. It finally won a road playoff game. It got three players on the All-Pro team […]
Texans Fire 3 Assistant Coaches
The Houston Texans have made their first significant staff changes of the 2026 offseason. KPRC’s Aaron Wilson reports that the team is moving on from tight ends coach Jake Moreland, assistant linebacker coach Ben Bolling, and offensive assistant Mike Snyder: All three coaches have spent multiple years on Houston’s staff, and now all will be […]
The Tank Dell Effect
In the previous iteration of the Houston Texans, before Watson unmasked himself, the offense excelled when Will Fuller V was streaking down the field like his nicknamesake The Flash. Under Demeco Ryans, Tank Dell fills that role for the team. In ‘23 & ‘24, Dell combined for 156 targets, 98 receptions, 1376 yards, 69 first […]
Value of Things: Texans Quarterback Alternatives
I work throughout the day as a teacher. Officially, I am a special education teacher, but I spend the vast majority of my time in English classrooms. If there is one axiom that has been drilled into us over the years (28 for me) it is that if one student has a question then a […]
The Day After The Day After (Plus 1): Thoughts on the Houston Texans and Conference Championship Weekend
The Day After the Day After…when the raw, immediate emotions from the aftermath of a game diminish into the realm of clarity and the proverbial (or literal) hangover no longer haunts the mind. With that, a review of Conference Championship Weekend: A painful weekend for Texans’ fans: It is said that perhaps the four cruelest […]
Value of Things: A Theoretical C.J. Stroud contract
I made a statement in the last VOT that this decision will be the hardest decision in franchise history. The Texans paid their last franchise quarterback a lot of money, but the decision to pay him was not difficult. Everyone in the organization and city agreed at the time that he was a franchise quarterback. […]
Houston Texans – Top 3 Offseason Targets
It’s never fun when your team loses in the playoffs. When they win, you can gloss over all of the mistakes with the satisfaction of victory. But, when they lose, all those miscues become the center of everyone’s attention once the game – and season – is over. Every mistake will be combed over in […]
Houston Texans Position Outlook: Quarterback
If you told most people in 2023 that there would be real doubt surrounding C.J. Stroud’s future as a top-tier NFL quarterback, you would’ve been called insane. Since his historic rookie season, Stroud has been chasing that same level of play — and he hasn’t consistently looked like the same quarterback. There are still moments […]
The C.J. Stroud Hypothesis
A standard high school football offensive playbook is usually somewhere between a dozen and a hundred pages long (based on how serious the school takes the game). Throughout those pages, many have options on each such as route trees, shifts, motions, run/play action decisions and more. If each variation had its own page, they’d number […]
Instant reactions after Texans third consecutive Divisional Round loss
Tough losses necessitate tough questions. That’s exactly what I asked when I requested instant reactions and opinions on QB C.J. Stroud directly after Houston’s embarrassing loss to the Patriots in the Divisional Round. What are your instant reactions to the Pats beat down of the Texans? What’s the outlook for Stroud and what needs to […]
Value of Things: Texans day of reckoning
It started innocently enough. Landy Locker asked whether Nick Caley could grow as a play caller and whether he would get an opportunity to do that. DeMeco Ryans gave a seemingly innocuous response that is actually very telling. For much of the season, he gave full throated defenses of Caley as an offensive coordinator. In […]
The Day After the Day After: The Houston Texans fall to the New England Patriots 28-16 in their season finale
The Day After the Day After…when the raw, immediate emotions from the aftermath of a game diminish into the realm of clarity and the proverbial (or literal) hangover no longer haunts the mind. With that, a review of the Divisional Round Weekend: Arguably the Worst 2nd Quarter for the Offense this Season: That 2nd Quarter […]
Texans to pick up fifth year option on C.J. Stroud
In the aftermath of C.J. Stroud’s worst game as a Texan, the team has decided to head off speculation at the pass and are picking up the fifth year option on his rookie contract. At the very worst, he will be under contract for the next two years. Furthermore, they at least openly admitted that […]
Should CJ Stroud Have Been Benched Against the Patriots?
I never thought I would be making a post like this! After the Houston Texans’ heartbreaking first half performance against the New England Patriots in the divisional round yesterday, many across the country and across the internet used halftime to propose one major second-half adjustment: benching QB CJ Stroud for backup Davis Mills. You know […]
Value of Things: By the numbers
Most seasons end in a loss. There are only two ways for that not to happen. Either you win the Super Bowl or you miss the playoffs and win a meaningless game in week 18. Those are your two options. Every other team sees their season end in disappointment and it is the same for […]
Texans season ends with (five) turnovers, lose to Patriots in Divisional Round again 28-16
It has happened again. The Houston Texans season ended, as it has in years past, in the divisional round against a team that they have never beaten in the playoffs, the New England Patriots. The game began poorly after Calen Bullock slipped on the turf, slick with water and snow, allowing a touchdown to put […]
Texans at Patriots Division Round live game discussion thread
So…here we are again. On the road in a divisional round game against a team the Houston Texans have struggled against historically in the playoffs. We’re all too familiar with this scenario. But the Texans have something this year that they haven’t in previous years: the most dominant defense in the NFL. This is not […]
How One Key Texans Player can Beat the Patriots
Every week, the Battle Red Blog staff get together on Discord and chat during the Texans game, offering conversation and brief analysis of the team as they grind through another game. One expression that has become a mainstay on the chat is “C.H.U.M.,” which is an acronym for “Carlos Hyde Up the Middle.” This acronym […]
Houston Texans Friday Injury Report: Starting WR OUT
Houston Texans fans like ourselves have been receiving an avalanche of good news related to the Texans team since, like, November. Unfortunately, today is not one of those days. The Houston Texans released their final injury report before the Divisional Round game against the New England Patriots on Sunday, and WR Nico Collins (concussion) is […]
Five good Texans questions with Pats Pulpit
The Houston Texans have reached the summit of their own success by advancing to the divisional round for the seventh time in franchise history. Will the seventh time be the lucky charm? We spoke with Taylor Kyles from Pats Pulpit about the upcoming tilt between the Texans and Patriots. This will be the third time […]
Christian Kirk’s Immaculate Performance Spurs Texans Offense
The difference between an early exit and a deep playoff run is often a player who wasn’t supposed to be part of the story. On Monday’s Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, that player was wide receiver Christian Kirk. For all intents and purposes, Kirk had an underwhelming year as the veteran presence in […]