2026 Offseason Preview: Houston
The Houston Texans continue to seek a breakthrough
statbutler.com will be compiling offseason previews for all 32 teams in the lead up to free agency. Feel free to share any of the text/visuals below with attribution. All underlying contract data was collected by overthecap.com.
Recent Team History
For the third time in three years since drafting C.J. Stroud, the Texans relied on their defense to earn a playoff spot and a wild card round victory, only to fall in the divisional round.
2025 Season
Houston began 2025 with three straight loses. Following that stretch, the Texans defense would go on to cement themselves as the one the top units in football. The season ended for Houston when their 10-game win streak was snapped by New England in one of Stroud’s worst ever performances.
Returning Players
Note that all restructures below are assumed to be max restructures. This means that the team will use void years to prorate cash across up to five seasons, minimizing amount that will hit the current year’s salary cap.
For players who are not vested veterans, I’ve replaced information about the player’s active contract with a description of the team control remaining until the player can become an unrestricted free agent.
The Texans have a solid skill position group, anchored by Nico Collins. Collins turned in a solid season, albeit not nearly as good as his 2024 season when he was third in yards per route run. ESPN’s WR open score, a player tracking metric that evaluates how well a pass catcher gets open even when not targeted, had Collins 14th of 116 WRs in 2024, but 100th out of 110 WRs in 2025. It’s rare to see a player take this big of step back in a skill that is otherwise thought to be stable. I’ll be keeping an eye on how 2026 unfolds for Collins.
The offensive line was a major pain point for this team in 2025. After trading Laremy Tunsil to Washington, the Texans would go on to start second round draft pick Aireontae Ersery at LT for the majority of the season. While Ersery will likely get some time to develop, much of the offensive line feels like an open question at this point.
The Texans defense will be getting the gang back together in 2026. Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter are the best 1-2 punch in the NFL from the edge and the Texans are pairing that combo with an outstanding back seven. PFF’s advanced coverage grades ranked four of those players in the top 12 of their respective positions: Kamari Lassiter (CB #6), Derek Stingley (CB #12), Jalen Pitre (S #3), and Azeez Al-Shaair (LB #8).
Expiring Contracts
I think there are probably a fair number of players that the Texans would like to have back here. Trent Brown had a nice run in the back half of the season and he could be a legitimate candidate to start if the Texans want to move on from Tytus Howard. Ed Ingram had a career year, but he could be looking at more attractive prospects in free agency. The only real hole in the Texans defense is the interior line. Maybe they look to bring back Tim Settle or Sheldon Rankins as a vet who can shore up that group along with a draft pick. I think Tommy Townsend has a good chance to return at punter as well.
Areas of Need
This team really only has one need that jumps out to me: interior offensive line. Compared to past years, I don’t feel like there is quite as much on the market. Perhaps they get aggressive on the trade market as Nick Caserio has done so often. Outside of that, they probably need one (or two) more contributors on the interior defensive line.
Cuts & Options
I’m not including ERFA eligible players here (expiring contracts with less than 3 accrued seasons), as they can either sign a league minimum contract or the team can allow them to leave.
Mario Edwards and Joe Mixon are clearly cuts. Tytus Howard is the difficult one. Has spent seven seasons with the team and has demonstrated versatility, but is due to earn $18m with no guarantees. If Howard were to play guard full-time, he’d currently be due to earn the 7th most cash of any interior offensive lineman in 2026. Maybe it’s a case where they can work out a lower number or maybe they keep him at tackle where that number is easier to swallow.
The Texans will also have until May 1st to pick up 5th year options on C.J. Stroud ($27.2m) and Will Anderson ($22.9m). These are easy pickups and will keep both players under contract through 2027. Expect them to be extended before we get to that point.
The Salary Cap
In the image below, each blue bordered rectangle is equivalent to the cap hit of a single player. Within that rectangle, there are more rectangles that break down the player’s cap hit. Areas colored green can be pushed entirely into a future cap years via max restructure. Areas with vertical bars are “locked in” and the team cannot open them up by releasing the player. They represent either fully guaranteed cash that hasn’t been earned yet or remaining proration from cash earned in previous league years.
For the moment, Houston is expected to be right at the cap number. They’ll gain some space with the obvious restructures along with a few cuts.
Were Houston to take all of their restructure opportunities (they won’t), I’d have them with about $56m in cap space. It’s more than enough to do whatever they like, but it is a smaller number than a lot of other teams have. Some of that is the Howard cut accelerating cap into 2026. From a cash standpoint, what I have above puts Houston at $219m (25th) for right now. On a cash basis, which is what really matters, they’re in “spend whatever you want within reason” territory.
Draft Capital
The Texans hold just four of their original selections for the upcoming draft, but they’ll have four picks landed in trades. Two of the picks acquired from Washington in the Tunsil trade come in at 38th & 106th and the final pick from their Jaxson Dart trade-back will be 69th. Even though they’re picking late, the Texans have the 14th most draft capital on my trade based scale.