STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE
CJ Stroud, DeMeco Ryans reveal how Stefon Diggs impacts Texans offense
Apr 16, 2024, 9:55 am
The Texans now have the seventh-best odds to win this year’s Super Bowl. Composite Getty Image.
C.J. Stroud was still asleep in Los Angeles when the news broke that the Houston Texans were trading for star receiver Stefon Diggs.
When the quarterback picked up his phone and saw several messages from friends asking how he was feeling, he thought they were just checking up on him.
He was still half asleep when he responded to about five such texts with some version of: ‘I’m good fam, how are you?’"
A few minutes later he got up, brushed his teeth, washed his face and checked social media.
“Then I seen the news … and I’m like: ‘oh shoot, that’s what they’re talking about,’” Stroud said with a laugh Monday.
Then, Stroud’s day, of course, went from good to great.
“I was very excited,” he said beaming.
Diggs was traded from Buffalo to Houston April 3, giving last year’s AP Offensive Rookie of the Year another playmaker to throw to and vaulting the Texans into the Super Bowl conversation.
“He’s been a great player in this league for a long time, well respected,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “He’s been a great teammate, he’s been a leader, a captain. And, when you look at him and watch the tape … no one doubts the playmaker that he is. He changes games for the teams that he’s been a part of and we’re anticipating the same thing for us.”
He wasn't made available to reporters on the first day of Houston's voluntary offseason work.
Diggs is a four-time Pro Bowler, who was an All-Pro in 2020. He has had at least 1,000 yards receiving in each of the past six seasons and finished with 1,183 yards receiving last season.
Some have criticized Diggs because he started hot last season, with five 100-yard games in the first six weeks before his production tapered off and he didn’t have another 100-yard game the rest of the way.
Ryans said they aren’t at all concerned about that.
“We look at a player in totality,” Ryans said. “We don’t look at this amount of weeks or that … we look at the entire season, we look at the guy’s entire career, what he’s done. He’s been productive.”
The Texans made a complete turnaround last season thanks in large part to the additions of Stroud and Ryans as well as AP Defensive Rookie of the Year Will Anderson. Houston, which had won just 11 games combined in the three previous seasons, won the AFC South and a wild-card playoff game against Cleveland before falling to the Ravens in the divisional round.
Now they add Diggs to an offense that will also feature a new running back after Joe Mixon was acquired in a deal with Cincinnati. The fresh faces join a group that was led last season by Nico Collins, who had a career-high 1,297 yards receiving, and Tank Dell, who had 709 yards receiving and seven TD grabs before his electric rookie season ended with a broken leg in his 11th game.
Ryans said Dell has recovered from his injury and he’s looking for big things from the third-round pick in his second season.
“That was a devastating loss for us last year, losing him,” Ryans said. “He’s such a dynamic player for us, such an inspiration for myself, for a lot of our team. So, I’m excited to just to see Tank back working with our guys and excited to see him make that same jump that I talked about in Year 1 to Year 2.”
Stroud, the second overall pick in last year’s draft, first met Diggs at the Pro Bowl and has already got to work at building a relationship with his new receiver. Diggs, Dell and Houston receiver John Metchie have already spent time together working out and catching passes from Stroud since the trade.
Stroud ranked eighth in the NFL last season with 4,108 yards passing and he had 23 TD passes with just five interceptions. He’s eager to see how the offense will look with the addition of a player of Diggs' caliber.
“He adds a ton of value to that room,” Stroud said. “He has a lot of wisdom that he carries that I think he’ll spread to other guys. He’s been reaching out to really everybody, and I think that whole room in general is going to be great. I think we’re all going to eat off each other.”
The Texans, who were expected to be among the NFL’s worst teams entering last season, now have the seventh-best odds to win this year’s Super Bowl, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
While that has created a buzz outside of NRG Stadium, Ryans and his team haven't paid it any mind.
“The expectations from outside don’t permeate inside our building,” Ryans said. “What wins games for us is when everybody is really striving, putting the work in to be better. And that’s what it’s all about. We don’t care about expectations. Talk doesn’t win games. We have to go out and play good football when that time comes.”
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Coming off a 10-win regular season and an appearance in the divisional round of the playoffs, expectations are high for the Houston Texans in 2024.
However, coach DeMeco Ryans is only concerned with what is happening inside the team.
“We have a lot of room for improvement, and my expectations and what I expect to see from everyone is just get a little better each day,” Ryans said. “If we get a little bit better each day, we'll be exactly where we want to be.”
The day before starting his second training camp as Texans head coach, Ryans told his players they should expect more from themselves than anyone else.
“Nobody on the outside is going to have a bigger expectation than on the inside of the building,” defensive end Will Anderson Jr. said. “Right now, our expectation is just building that building, building a tall building."
After combining for just 11 wins from 2020-2022, Houston surprised many to win the AFC South before beating the Cleveland Browns in the wild-card round. The Texans likely won’t catch anyone by surprise this season.
“It’s gonna be harder,” quarterback C.J. Stroud said. “We have a target on our back this year, and that’s how you should want it.”
The emergence of Stroud is a big reason why so much is expected of the Texans in 2024. The second overall pick of the 2023 draft threw for 4,108 yards and 23 touchdowns on his way to being the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year.
“C.J. has done a really good job this offseason, as a leader when it comes to working with other guys,” Ryans said. “Knowing that he’s not just working by himself, but finding the avenues to get a group together and work together. That’s very important, especially when it comes to timing in the passing game.”
The Texans added talent around Stroud over the offseason, acquiring Pro Bowl receiver Stefon Diggs from Buffalo and Pro Bowl running back Joe Mixon from Cincinnati before the draft.
Mixon will help a Texans rushing offense that averaged just 3.7 yards per carry, fifth worst in the NFL last season, while Diggs, who has finished with more than 100 catches the past four seasons, joins a passing attack that returns its five leading pass catchers.
“I’ve been watching Diggs for a while,” wide receiver Nico Collins said. “I was in middle school, and he was in Minnesota making plays, so it’s just crazy that he’s part of the squad.”
On the other side of the ball, the Texans signed four-time Pro Bowl defensive end Danielle Hunter to a two-year, $49 million contract after a 16 1/2 sack season with the Minnesota Vikings to pair with Anderson, the 2023 AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, on the defensive line.
Expectations are lofty for a team that has not advanced to a conference championship game in its 22-year history, but Stroud and his teammates aren’t shying away from those expectations.
“That’s how it should be,” Stroud said. “The person that always doubts himself probably will never make it to that point, so you gotta have confidence and have a goal and a plan and execute that plan.”