Battle Red Blog Groupthink: Houston Texans End of Season Direction

Sunday’s matchup against the 6-5 Denver Broncos represents and inflection point on the season. A win will launch the Texans back in the playoff race and secure them a valuable win over another wildcard competitor. A loss prunes their chances of making the playoffs. Considering the Texans are days away from the toughest opponent of the remaining games and frankly the hottest offense in football, the outcome of this matchup has a tremendous affect on the rest of the season.

Texans are 6-5, third in the division, but have a fairly easy schedule ahead of us. Would you rather see the Texans tank to continue the rebuilding process or continue to fight for a possible wild card spot?

vballretired:

We don’t have our first round pick so I’d rather see the Browns tank. I want to see this team learn and you only learn when you try to win football games. I won’t be heartbroken if we miss the playoffs. I never expected to go but they better learn important lessons along the way. The days of sucking for the sake of sucking are over.

l4blitzer:

At this point, “tanking” is off the table. Whether the team has just been on the hot streaks of hot streaks, or the talent within the building is just gelling that well, the team moved at warp speed from player development and taking some positives from the field to fighting for wins/playoff position. Are there flaws on the roster? Oh yeah. With the loss of Tytus Howard for the year, those will just get magnified. Maybe the team will fall off and end up in the bottom tier, but they’ve shown what the future can hold. Besides, tanking only helps Arizona, and since we’ve already gifted them JJ Watt, DeAndre Hopkins and Ray Lopez, I think we contributed enough to that franchise thank you very much. If nothing else, the team is still going to have at least 7 picks in the 2024 draft and a projected ~$72M in cap space this coming off-season. Plenty of chips to load up on talent and/or much needed depth.

Patrick.H:

I said it in a previous recap, a quote from Necessary Roughness which applies to the Texans: basic losing is over. Tanking made sense in the last two seasons because the Texans had nothing to play for and nothing for a foundation. The Texans appear to have something to play for this year. They most certainly have a foundation now with Stroud and Ryans in the biggest roles on the team. So it really doesn’t follow that the Texans should tank the season at this point. Besides, Arizona has our first round pick. Tanking would only really help them. While you could make a case that the Texans would be better positioned in later rounds if they tanked, the differences between early-in-round and late-in-round picks are less and less significant the further into the draft you get. It’s just not worth it.

Kenneth L:

I agree with L4blitzer; tanking will do us no good without control of our first round pick. What is important is maximizing the development of our young stars. The Texans should absolutely continue their winning ways; it’s a habit rather than an occasional occurrence. Tanking has little to no reward this late into the season with this many wins. Houston fans have suffered too much for too long to not enjoy a season for the sake of good football. Barring injuries, Houston has a legitimate chance to weasel their way into a wild card spot. Between the number of AFC South games remaining and offensive woes of the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns, there’s a real possibility the Texans could lose this matchup on Sunday against the Broncos and still find a way into the playoffs. Fight on Houston.