The Houston Texans are coming off a breakout year which included a star being born in QB CJ Stroud, an AFC South championship, and a Wild Card round beat down of the Cleveland Browns.

The interest in the Texans hasn't been this high in years, and some top free agents are eyeing the Texans as their next landing spot.

Giants running back Saquon Barkley recently followed several Texans players on social media. Which should come as no surprise, who wouldn't want to join Stroud and the surging young Texans?

KPRC'S Aaron Wilson reported on Sunday night that Barkley's interest in joining the team is more than hitting like on social media. He's been in contract with Stroud and expressed an interest in playing in Houston (jump to the 3:45 mark in the video below).

The real question is, should the Texans want Barkley? While he's still a quality running back, he's not the same player as he was before some significant injuries.

He averaged below four yards a carry last season, but as Craig points out in the first video, his offensive line was the worst in football, according to PFF.

In fact, they only had 1 out of 5 players that were considered starting caliber. The Texans had 4.

So that alone should be working in his favor to bounce back this season.

The elephant in the room

The size of the contract he will command is the real issue. PFF projects he could be looking for a deal in the range of 3-years, $31 million. With him being 27 years old, the length of the contract does make sense.

Plus, it was announced on Friday the NFL is raising the salary cap to $255.4 million, an increase over 13%. That puts the Texans 7th in cap space per PFF.

The Texans have plenty of money to spend but also a lot of holes to fill on defense. The other thing to consider is whether Barkley is the top back on the market.

Adam Schefter is reporting no backs will receive the franchise tag, so Houston could have the pick of the litter in theory between Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Derrick Henry, and Tony Pollard.

And bringing Devin Singletary back on a more affordable contract is also a possibility. We will learn a lot about the Texans backfield over the next two weeks when the legal tampering period begins on March 11.

Be sure to let us know what you would do in the comments!