BRB Groupthink: Should The Texans Keep Winning or Tanking?

The BRB writers answer whether they think the team should continue to win in 2022 or shut it down and lose for the draft.

The Houston Texans secured their first win of the season. Bad teams winning always ignites a portion of the fanbase who only want to see the team lose. It’s either Super Bowl or first overall for them. With that being the case for Texans fans, we proposed the same question to our Battle Red Blog writers.

The Texans finally won their first game of the season. It was ugly. It was low scoring. It wasn’t fun, but it’s a win. With five other teams with only one win through five weeks, is it more important the Texans show improvement in this mid-season stretch or continue to compete for a top-3 overall pick?

Kenneth L.:

The Texans are in just the first stage of their rebuilding process. To enhance the rest of the process, they need to double down and tank. That’s right, sell the soul of the veterans brought in to save Lovie Smith and go all in for the future. Two more wins is the most we could get away with and have a top five draft pick. A four-win team certainly will be in the 7-10 range of picks.

Trade Laremy Tunsil. Trade Brandin Cooks. Stock up on second, third, and fourth rounders. We’ve seen that GM Nick Caserio can find gems later in the draft, so give him more ammunition to do so. There’s no such thing as too much draft capital.

This team won’t transform overnight. While our division gives us the opportunity to be horrific and still challenge for the top spot, the Texans should set their sites on the future rather than salvage a 1-3-1 season.

Corydlg:

So wins are great but there’s a real history of the Texans being middle of the league for everything for most of its existence. Do I want five wins? Heck yes! Would I rather two picks in the Top 10? Heck Yes!

Vballretired:

Logically it would seem like losing is the way to go. After all, if you want your choice of QBs in the draft you need that top three pick. Do you really? Look at the AFC. Most would consider Mahomes, Allen, Herbert, Burrow, Jackson, and name redacted 2.0 as the top QBs in the conference. Only two of those were taken within the top five. So, if we take that for what it’s worth we’d see I’d rather improve. If we improve it means we hit on most of those draft picks. It means we can have more faith they can find THE guy no matter where they are picking. The Glitter Kitties are a perfect example of the folly of relentlessly sucking. Eventually you have to gain some momentum. So, give me five or six wins and sell me on progress.

L4blitzer:

Ugly, low-scoring games…seems like that is the only way the Texans are going to win this year. As for improvement vs. getting a top draft pick, I think you can end up with both the way this team is set up. The rookies, especially the higher picks from this draft, are showing good potential. Barring injury, that should continue. This will be critical for any hopes of consistent winning in the next couple of seasons. As for the record, the overall talent level of this squad will take care of that problem.

Patrick.Haughton

I have no problem with the Texans tanking for a better draft pick. That said, I would be concerned about what FORM that tanking took. Let’s be honest, the Texans are going to be likely to lose every game this season. I’m not saying they will, I’m just saying the Vegas odds are frequently against the Texans. So in truth, they don’t need to do a whole lot less than what they’re already doing to get a high draft spot.

My concern would be if the Texans went fully in the tank, it would impact the development of our current rookies. Because if you trade all their big ticket players in the name of tanking, it’s going to affect Dameon Pierce if we dump Tunsil and Tytus Howard. If we dump Greenard, how will that affect the development of Stingley and Pitre in the secondary?

If we’re going to tank and trade any player who can land us a mid-round pick, it would make more sense to do so after the end of the season.

Logically, tanking makes sense. My point is the Texans don’t look like they really need to tank to get those high picks. They’re doing just fine as it is.

In short: