TAKING STOCK: 2022 HOUSTON TEXANS

BY ADAM GREENE

If you thought the Houston Texans were going to do anything to get better for 2022, I hope you’ve stayed off Twitter this week. The Texans franchise and Jonestown religious cult has opened its DMs, apparently, and has put Laremy Tunsil and Brandin Cooks on the market to go with already sure to depart quarterback Deshaun Watson.

The Texans looked like they’d be awful this past season and they were, just not as awful as we thought. They won four games, four more than the pathetic roster they put forth upon the earth should have. For his exemplary work coaching the worst football team in the NFL, David Culley was, of course, fired after a single season.

HOUSTON TEXANS

2021-22 Record: 4-13, third place AFC South

Playoffs: N/A

NOW WHAT?

As I mentioned earlier, it’s a fire sale in Houston. Laremy Tunsil is on the block as is Brandin Cooks. We already new Watson was heading out the door after never setting foot on the field in 2021. This is a team that already has very little NFL talent and now they’re looking to shed their two best remaining players.

You could argue that new head coach Lovie Smith and GM Nick Caserio are pulling the ripcord on a complete rebuild, but as long as Jim Jones, I mean Jack Easterby, has any say in the operations of the team, this is a disaster that will continue circling the toilet drain.

FREE AGENCY

The irony of the Texans’ situation is they have $19.858 million in available salary cap before any new moves, but a lot of that was spent on Watson. He’ll still be on the books in some way, as will Tunsil and Cooks. Tunsil has $26 million in dead cap money if he’s traded. Cooks has $7.5 million. So moving on from these guys does nothing to add to the team, other than whatever draft capital they can acquire that they will inevitably ruin, squander or trade away.

They need everything. But no player worth a damn will want to play for the Texans. So they’ll only be adding bodies from the bottom of the NFL barrel or severely overpaying for actual talent.

DRAFT

As it stands, the Texans have the No. 3 overall pick. Watson will be worth at least two Nos. 1 and Tunsil at least one, if not two himself. Cooks will, at best, go for a late second, but they’ll probably settle for a third for him. Either way, that third rounder should be a starter.

This is one of the worst rosters in the recent history of the NFL and that was before they held a fire sale on Tunsil and Cooks. They should expect three first round selections in the next two drafts after these trades, so they can control their destiny. I had them taking Tyler Linderbaum, OL out of Iowa, in my first mock draft, and they should start there and go into some actual playmakers later, depending on where these trade picks land.

AFC SOUTH

The AFC South was garbage last season, producing just one playoff team, the Tennessee Titans, who happened to be the worst No. 1 seed in the AFC since the last time the Titans claimed the spot. Doug Pederson will change things with the Jacksonville Jaguars in a hurry, the Titans aren’t going away and as long as Frank Reich is the coach of the Indianapolis Colts, they’ll at least be competitive.

This is a fourth place team again flirting with a 1-4 win season in 2022.

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan.

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