Seems national media is laying groundwork to walk back Houston Texans predictions
WALKING IT BACK
18 April 2024
Everyone is talking about the Texans! Composite Getty Image.
How quickly things can change in a year. Just last April, Texans fans were on the edge of their seats hoping the organization would land their franchise quarterback in the NFL Draft.
Fast-forward to 2024 and the state of the Texans franchise is almost unrecognizable. NBC Sports' Mike Florio is making statements about how the NFL must love the Texans because they are the proof that any team can turn their franchise around in one year. Which makes the NFL Draft look even more important. Draft picks give fanbases hope, and unlike baseball and to some extent basketball, many of the top picks start right away.
More Texans love
Other national media members like Colin Cowherd are creating segments about which teams could be the 2025 version of the Texans. In fact, Cowherd praised the Texans last week for reaching out to him two years ago for information about Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton.
Post-free agency he picked the Texans to miss the playoffs, but it seems like he's rethinking his prediction.
Counterpoint
Some in the media have their concerns about the Texans trade for Stefon Diggs. Ross Tucker was a guest of the Rich Eisen Show and questioned if wiping the remaining years off of Diggs' contract was a good idea.
First, he thought trading a 2025 second-round pick was too much to give up for a player on a one-year deal. But his second point made us stop and think. He compared this situation to something he experienced in his playing career. He's worried that if Diggs isn't getting enough targets and production in a contract year, he might become a problem.
And the Texans have plenty of weapons to spread the ball to this year with Nico Collins, Diggs, Tank Dell, Dalton Schultz, Noah Brown, Robert Woods, Joe Mixon…you get the point.
So we did a little digging into the numbers. There's a scenario in which the Texans could have two receivers go over one thousand yards.
Everybody eats!
We can just look around the league and see that both the Eagles (AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith) and Dolphins (Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle) did it in 2022 and 2023. The Bengals (Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins) also had two receivers go over a thousand yards in 2021 and 2022.
CJ Stroud averaged 274 passing yards per game in 2023, if we multiply that number by seventeen games that puts CJ at 4,658 yards. Nico Collins had 1,297 yards in 15 games last season, and Stefon Diggs recorded 1,183 receiving yards. So that would leave 2.178 yards for the other pass catchers in the offense.
While it's unlikely Tank Dell gets to one thousand if everyone stays healthy, he could get fairly close. Stroud doesn't throw to his running backs all that often, and the Texans should have Dell, Diggs, and Collins together on the field more than fifty percent of the time.
Don't count him out
Texans quarterback CJ Stroud met with the Houston media this week and talked about the team's wide receiver room, which now includes Stefon Diggs.
One of the other names he brought up was receiver John Metchie III. Stroud said he's looking good in workouts, so he could be another mouth to feed in the Houston offense.
And considering how the season finished in Baltimore for the Texans, having too many receivers is a good problem to have. If we only look at the wide receivers and eliminate tight ends and running backs from the conversation, the picture becomes very clear. Collins led the wide receivers with 5 catches for 68 yards. Which receiver came in second, you ask? Robert Woods with 1 catch for 6 yards.
Bring on the receivers!
Don't miss the video above for the full discussion about Diggs, the Texans' new-look offense, and how they are being perceived by the media.
Critical levers Astros can pull as health concerns, deadline pressures grow
Jul 10, 2025, 3:46 pm
What looked like a minor blip after an emotional series win in Los Angeles has turned into something more concerning for the Houston Astros.
Swept at home by a Guardians team that came in riding a 10-game losing streak, the Astros were left looking exposed. Not exhausted, as injuries, underperformance, and questionable decision-making converged to hand Houston one of its most frustrating series losses of the year.
Depth finally runs dry
It would be easy to point to a “Dodger hangover” as the culprit, the emotional peak of an 18-1 win at Chavez Ravine followed by a mental lull. But that’s not the story here.
Houston’s energy was still evident, especially in the first two games of the series, where the offense scored five or more runs each time. Including those, the Astros had reached that mark in eight of their last 10 games heading into Wednesday’s finale.
But scoring isn’t everything, not when a lineup held together by duct tape and desperation is missing Christian Walker and Jake Meyers and getting critical at-bats from Cooper Hummel, Zack Short, and other journeymen.
The lack of depth finally showed. The Astros, for three days, looked more like a Triple-A squad with Jose Altuve and a couple big-league regulars sprinkled in.
Cracks in the pitching core
And the thing that had been keeping this team afloat, elite pitching, finally buckled.
Hunter Brown and Josh Hader, both dominant all season, finally cracked. Brown gave up six runs in six innings, raising his pristine 1.82 ERA to 2.21. Hader wasn’t spared either, coughing up a game-losing grand slam in extra innings that inflated his ERA from 1.80 to 2.38 in one night.
But the struggles weren’t isolated. Bennett Sousa, Kaleb Ort, and Steven Okert each gave up runs at critical moments. The bullpen’s collective fade could not have come at a worse time for a team already walking a tightrope.
Injury handling under fire
Houston’s injury management is also drawing heat, and rightfully so. Jake Meyers, who had been nursing a calf strain, started Wednesday’s finale. He didn’t even make it through one pitch before aggravating the injury and needing to be helped off the field.
No imaging before playing him. No cautionary rest despite the All-Star break looming. Just a rushed return in a banged-up lineup, and it backfired immediately.
Second-guessing has turned to outright criticism of the Astros’ medical staff, as fans and analysts alike wonder whether these mounting injuries are being made worse by how the club is handling them.
Pressure mounts on Dana Brown
All eyes now turn to Astros GM Dana Brown. The Astros are limping into the break with no clear reinforcements on the immediate horizon. Only Chas McCormick is currently rehabbing in Sugar Land. Everyone else? Still sidelined.
Brown will need to act — and soon.
At a minimum, calling up top prospect Brice Matthews makes sense. He’s been mashing in Triple-A (.283/.400/.476, 10 HR, .876 OPS) and could play second base while Jose Altuve shifts to left field more regularly. With Mauricio Dubón stretched thin between shortstop and center, injecting Matthews’ upside into the infield is a logical step.
*Editor's note: The Astros must be listening, Matthews was called up Thursday afternoon!
The Astros are calling up Brice Matthews, their top prospect on @MLBPipeline
via @brianmctaggart pic.twitter.com/K91cGKkcx6
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 10, 2025
There’s also trade chatter, most notably about Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins, but excitement has been tepid. His numbers don’t jump off the page, but compared to who the Astros are fielding now, Mullins would be a clear upgrade and a much-needed big-league presence.
A final test before the break
Before the All-Star reset, Houston gets one last chance to stabilize the ship, and it comes in the form of a rivalry series against the Texas Rangers. The Astros will send their top trio — Lance McCullers Jr., Framber Valdez, and Hunter Brown — to the mound for a three-game set that will test their resolve, their health, and perhaps their postseason aspirations.
The Silver Boot is up for grabs. So is momentum. And maybe, clarity on just how far this version of the Astros can go.
There's so much more to discuss! Don't miss the video below as we examine the topics above and much, much more!
The MLB season is finally upon us! Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday.
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*ChatGPT assisted.
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