Who the Texans can Build Around for the Future

Three players the Texans can use a starting point for the rebuild.

One of the keys to building a good football team is identifying core players, and adding franchise cornerstones, to build your team around. Whether it’s hitting in the draft and extending players, or selecting the correct players in free agency to invest in, either one is a prerequisite to constructing a football team. One of the problems the current version of the Texans have is they lack these key players. Houston had them, but lost them because of their own stupidity, or their players desiring to go elsewhere, an indirect reason of the same thing.

Pro Football Focus recently selected three players each team can build around for the future. This is what they had to say about the Texans:

Houston Texans

T Laremy Tunsil

WR Brandin Cooks

S Justin Reid

Between Deshaun Watson’s off-field situation and his request for a trade out of Houston, it makes sense to leave him off the list. That leaves a relatively thin list of remaining candidates.

Tunsil is the Texans’ best player moving forward. He’s been one of the top pass-protecting tackles in the NFL since arriving in Houston, ranking in the 98th percentile at the position in pass-blocking grade on true pass sets since 2019. And Cooks, despite playing for four different teams before turning 27, is a talented wideout. His 55 receptions on passes 20-plus yards downfield over the past five years are fewer than only Tyreek Hill and Julio Jones.

Reid, even after a down 2020 season, has the most promising outlook of any defensive player for Houston. He has been the 24th-most valuable safety in the league since being drafted in 2018.

Here, is the same problem signified. Tunsil is a great player, but again, the value of a left tackle has been overrated in the years, and what Houston gave up to acquire him left their cupboard bare. Cooks is a great value at $8 million, but he’s already lost his vertical speed, and his production was the result of Watson pin pointing him on deep crossing routes. He’s a good 1B receiver, but isn’t someone you can build around. We’ve all been waiting for Reid to make the leap, last year should have been it, but in a fluid talentless secondary, a bum shoulder, and tackling problems, his performance dropped.

The point is simple. Whenever Houston trades Watson, they have to get the most out of him, and they have to hit on the picks they make with their haul. The Watson trade needs to springboard the next good Texans team, by turning him into multiple franchise players the Texans can build around.

Houston is empty. Tunsil is a cornerstone player. Cooks isn’t, and Reid hasn’t shown that he is yet. The Texans have gone from a team built around top talent, to a team without top talent.