Texans ready to enter ‘win-now’ era following 2023 breakout season

Entering the offseason, Houston Texans owner Cal McNair saw the window and knew it was time to strike. Houston was coming off its first winning season in four years and a playoff appearance behind a stellar debut from Offensive Rookie of the Year C.J. Stroud.

With Stroud on a team-friendly deal through 2027, McNair gave the order to general manager Nick Caserio to spend. Not just go add players and call it a day, but rather swing big and acquire top-notch talent.

Caserio obliged, signing high-profile free agents like linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, defensive lineman Dencio Autry, and pass-rusher Danielle Hunter. He also cooked up a trade to land former Pro Bowl running Joe Mixon, who then inked a three-year extension worth $27 million.

But it was the final move that put the NFL on blast earlier this month. The Texans used a 2025 second-round pick acquired in an earlier trade from the Minnesota Vikings to land four-time Pro Bowl receiver Stefon Diggs from the Buffalo Bills.

If fans hadn’t been paying attention last season, they were locked in now; Houston is done with the rebuild phase. It’s not entered the contention one.

“Our boys, when they heard the Stefon Diggs news, were screaming around the house,” Texans foundation vice president Hannah McNair told KPRC 2 Thursday in an interview at NRG Stadium. “And then, their friends said their teacher stopped class to tell everyone. So, there’s quite a buzz amongst the younger generation about the guys we’ve brought in. So, that’s exciting… We want to win now.”

Indeed, the Texans are in win-now mode. No longer looking to be the bottom-dwellers of the AFC, Houston’s hell-bent on being ranked alongside the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and other usual suspects considered to be the conference favorites each offseason.

The pieces are there for not just a winning season, but a winning and sustainable culture. After two one-and-done hirings with David Culley and Lovie Smith, Caserio landed former Texans Pro Bowl linebacker DeMeco Ryans following his two-year stay as San Franciso’s defensive coordinator.

In eight months, Ryans took one of the league’s worst defenses, worked some magic and put them as a borderline top-10 unit. The run defense went from dead-last to top-five thanks to Ryans’ aggressive demeanor. The unit recorded a franchise-record 46 sacks, seven of which came from Defensive Rookie of the Year Will Anderson Jr.

Here’s Cal and Hannah McNair on #Texans
on expectations.
Cal: ” We embrace the expectations, it’s where we want to be. At same time it’s about building the team, working hard, it’s the day to day things that will get us where we want to get to.
Hannah: “We want to win now!” pic.twitter.com/Grxabtw5iH

— Randy McIlvoy (@KPRC2RandyMc) April 11, 2024

“It’s been phenomenal,” Hannah McNair said of Ryans. “But he’s been that way since he was a player here. He was that way in college. He was that way in high school. It’s a part of who he is, so you knew what you were getting.”
Ryans and Stroud hold the keys to keeping the roster humming, but they have an exceptional supporting cast entering 2024. Nico Collins is coming off a breakout season where he finished eighth nationally in receiving yards. Rookie Tank Dell was on pace for a 1,000-yard season before suffering a fractured fibula in early December.

Tight end Dalton Schultz is back on a new three-year deal after serving as Stroud’s security blanket across the intermediate. All-Pro tackle Laremy Tunsil might remain the game’s top blindside blocker entering offseason workouts after surrendering just one sack.

That was the team of the past. The new version of the Texans features a four-time 1,000-yard rusher in Mixon, who also can be effective as a receiver out of the backfield. Diggs, who is set to enter free agency after Houston voided the final three years of his current deal, has posted six consecutive 1,000-yard campaigns, dating back to his time with the Vikings.

Defensively, Hunter is coming off a career season where he led the league in tackles for loss (23.5) and finished top-five in sacks (16.5). Al-Shaair, who spent his first four seasons with Ryans in San Francisco, finished fifth in tackles in a career-high 163 stops.

Houston lost both its sack leader Jonathan Greenard and leading tackler Blake Cashman to free agency. Instead of settling, the Texans — on paper —upgraded.

“We embrace the expectations,” Cal McNair said. “That’s where we want to be. At the same time, it’s about building the team and the team being coached and working hard. It’s the day-to-day things that are going to get us where we want to get to, but we got to stay focused and work hard every day to bring about where we want to go.”

Expectations are high following an 11-8 season culminating in a division title and record-setting playoff performance from Stroud. The hype will only expand if Caserio walks out of the draft weekend with a handful of prospects ready to compete for starting reps.

Defensive tackle and cornerback remain the most dire needs entering the first round, and even without a Day 1 pick, Ryans believes the middle of the rounds is a “sweet spot” to land starting talent, a factor into the trade down with Minnesota earlier this offseason.

The Texans are the first team to acquire players that recorded these stats in the previous season:

100+ catches (Stefon Diggs)
1000+ rush yards (Joe Mixon)
10+ sacks (Danielle Hunter) pic.twitter.com/wgZrcG3Hms

— NFL (@NFL) April 4, 2024

Three years ago, the Texans looked lost. The man who traded DeAndre Hopkins for a bag of balls and an out-of-date running back had just been shown the door. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year and face of the franchise was looking to play for a contender, not a rebuilding franchise.

Deshaun Watson was coming off a career season and set a franchise passing record. It’d be the last time he’d don a Texans’ jersey before eventually getting his wish for a fresh start following a year-long court case.

Houston’s flame was about to be extinguished. Now, it’s burning bright as a beacon of hope for a promising tomorrow.

“We know that we have to go out and work hard every day and start over,” said Cal McNair. “Basically, we’re starting a new season, putting a new team together with DeMeco and starting from scratch. It’s exciting, but we got a lot of work to do.”