ON THE HORIZON
How a remarkable turnaround impacts Houston Texans plans for the future
Jan 23, 2024, 10:50 am
The future is bright for Houston. Composite Getty Image.
C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans couldn’t reach the AFC championship game for the first time in franchise history.
However, the team’s turnaround under the rookie quarterback and first-year coach DeMeco Ryans was impressive and gives the Texans optimism that they’ll be contenders for years to come.
Rookie defensive end Will Anderson, the third overall pick in the draft, was crying after Houston’s 34-10 loss to Baltimore on Saturday when Stroud, the No. 2 draft pick, approached him.
“We’re good, we’re going to be good next year,” Anderson said Stroud told him.
So, Anderson wiped away his tears and thought about what Stroud said.
“I looked at it from his perspective after we talked,” Anderson said. “Just thinking about how much better we’re going to be next year. We’re heading in the right direction.”
Stroud said he hated to see Anderson upset and wanted to remind him that more good times are ahead.
“I just wanted to let him know I appreciated everything that he did for us that year,” Stroud said. "I just want to see his head up high. I just want to see him encouraged and positive.”
Stroud transformed the offense behind his stellar play after Davis Mills had struggled as the starter for most of the last two seasons. Houston went 10-7 in the regular season to win the AFC South, a year after finishing with the league’s second-worst record at 3-13-1.
“In this league, everybody’s looking for that quarterback,” Ryans said. “We know how important the position is, and the resources that go into finding the right guy to lead. And over half the league has them, half don’t. So, it’s a special position, it takes a special person to play that position and we’re happy to have C.J. leading us.”
Including the postseason, Stroud threw for 4,557 yards, which was the second-most by a rookie in NFL history behind Andrew Luck, who had 4,662 in 2012. He finished with 26 touchdown passes and just five interceptions and was not picked off in the playoffs.
The former Ohio State standout concluded the season with 198 pass attempts without an interception after opening with 191 in a row without a pick, which was an NFL record to start a career.
“C.J., throughout the entire year, what I love most about it is the growth,” Ryans said. “It’s encouraging when you have a young guy who’s able to grow, not only in the entire season, but to see him grow and take the coaching points and grow from week to week and see a guy improve so quickly. It’s encouraging to see how much better he can get as he continues to play throughout the league.”
Stroud is pleased with what he accomplished but is looking to do “way more” in the future.
“My plan is I want to be the best,” Stroud said. “I don’t want to just be the best rookie, the best second-year dude. I want to be the best point-blank period.”
Though Stroud was the undisputed star of the team, Anderson also had a strong season, setting a franchise rookie record with seven sacks. He had 45 tackles, including 10 for losses, and 22 quarterback hits while missing two games with an ankle injury.
NO DOUBT
Rookie third-round pick Tank Dell silenced anyone who doubted that he could perform in the NFL at his size. He was a standout for Houston before a broken leg ended his season.
The 5-foot-8, 165-pound Dell had 47 receptions for 709 yards and seven touchdowns in 11 games. He had three 100-yard games, including 149 yards in a 21-16 win over Arizona.
“I just felt like that was a test run for me,” Dell said. “I had a lot more to display but God puts you through things for a reason. I just keep my head up because I know the years to come are going to be special here.”
HOT COMMODITIES
Two of Houston’s assistants are candidates for jobs around the league. Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik has interviewed for several head coaching positions and quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson is a candidate for multiple offensive coordinator gigs.
“It’s kind of the nature of when you have success,” Ryans said. “Other people want to see what’s going on and they probably want to take some guys to help them out. So, it’s a tough part of it, but ... that’s what happens, and we’ll have to have contingency plans available.”
BREAKOUT SEASON
Nico Collins had a career-high 1,297 yards receiving after combining for just 927 yards in his first two seasons. Collins, a third-round pick from Michigan in 2021, continued his success in the playoffs with 164 yards and a score.
Collins had three games with more than 160 yards receiving, including a career-best 195 yards in Houston’s 23-19 win over Indianapolis that clinched a playoff berth. He joined Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins as the only players in franchise history to have a 1,200-yard receiving season.
NEXT STEPS
The Texans will continue to add pieces around Stroud and Anderson to try to get this team to the next level. A top priority will be improving their running game after they were outrushed 229 yards to 38 in the loss to Baltimore.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
Astros lose tight one despite brilliant outing from Hunter Brown
May 15, 2025, 10:29 pm
It’s a fun series between the Astros and Rangers through the weekend in Arlington, but by no means is it a critical series. It would be nice for the Astros to not lose three out of the four games (or obviously all four) to their upstate rivals. The Astros have lost their last five road series, dropping two out of three games in each of them. As with the Astros, pitching has been the strength of the team for the Rangers thus far. After the humdinger Hunter Brown-Jacob deGrom mound matchup Thursday night, the Rangers give the ball Friday to Nathan Eovaldi with his earned run average at 1.78, then Saturday it’s Tyler Mahle with his even more sparkling 1.47 ERA. Heading into Thursday play, the Mariners having lost five of their last six games meant just a game and a half separate first from fourth place in the American League West. The Astros, Rangers, and Athletics are all right there. Only the Angels are inconsequential.
Star power!
There is an asterisk to attach but Jeremy Pena is making a real charge at becoming a first-time All-Star game selection. Among American League shortstops, the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. is clearly the best. The clear number two in the pecking order coming into this season was the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson, who is on fire after a slow start that began with him missing seven games on the injured list. Athletics’ rookie Jacob Wilson goes into the weekend batting .350 and amazingly has struck out just nine times in 164 at bats. Rangers’ stud Corey Seager being on the injured list with a balky hamstring for the second time this season helps the Astros this weekend and likely frees up an All-Star spot.
Now to that aforementioned asterisk. Pena has been sensational so far, indisputably the Astros’ best everyday player. We just need to see more staying power of performance before fully slotting Pena in the top tier of shortstops. Pena’s four-hit game Wednesday night hiked his batting average to .315, his OPS to .840. Well, last year Pena put head to pillow the night of May 15 with his batting average at .333, his OPS at .830. The rest of the season Pena hit .240 with a meager .653 OPS. That Pena drew a paltry 18 walks over his last 114 games. 2025 Pena has showed markedly better plate discipline. He’ll never be a high walks-drawn guy but incremental improvement matters, and can bear fruit in other ways.
Fruitless continues to describe an awfully high percentage of Christian Walker’s plate appearances. 2023 Jose Abreu was better (2024 Abreu was not). Plenty of season still remains for a turnaround, but more than a quarter of the season is gone and it’s not as if Walker is trending in the right direction. In three games against the Royals he went zero for 12 with seven strikeouts. With his final whiff, Walker reached the 50 strikeout “milestone” for the season in his 154th at bat. Feeble and lousy are fair characterizations of a .208 batting average and .625 OPS, magnified for someone batting clean-up most nights. Starting play Thursday 13 big leaguers actually had struck out more than Walker so far this season, among them only the Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds carries a lower OPS. Walker has been even worse with runners in scoring position, batting just .171, with a sub-abysmal 20 strikeouts in 41 at bats.
Using Baseball-Reference's Wins Above Replacement statistic, the Astros’ three worst non-pitchers this season are Walker, Yordan Alvarez, and Jose Altuve. Those are the three highest paid players on the team. Altuve’s extended funk has him hitting .202 over his last 27 games with a .538 OPS. Altuve was dropped to second in the batting order basically at his request. It has not sparked him. If Altuve doesn’t pick it up, manager Joe Espada will have to consider dropping Altuve several more spots down the lineup. Alvarez is at 11 games and counting missed with a muscle strain in his right hand. He will not be approaching the career-high 147 games played last season.
Relief pitcher Tayler Scott was a revelation last season. Before joining the Astros at age 31 Scott had a big-league ERA of 9.00 in 46 innings scattered over three seasons. So it was pretty much out of nowhere that the only South African pitcher in MLB history posted a scintillating 1.36 ERA into early August before fading and winding up with a still stellar 2.23 mark. The clock struck midnight on his Cinderella story this year though, and with the Astros needing to open a roster spot this week, Scott was designated for assignment.
Book it!
Longtime Astros’ broadcasting stalwart Bill Brown has authored several books. His latest is Wartime Athletes, which tells the stories of athletes across a number of sports who served in the U.S. military during various wars. If you know anything about Bill Brown, you know each story was meticulously researched and makes for an interesting read. I’m no Oprah when it comes to the power of suggestion for reading material, but Wartime Athletes is worth your time and/or is a worthy gift for someone else.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
_____________________________________________
*Looking to get the word out about your business, products, or services? Consider advertising on SportsMap! It's a great way to get in front of Houston sports fans. Click the link below for more information!