NFL Offseason Previews: Houston Texans

March 7, 2023, by Patrick K. Flowers NFL

The NFL offseason is upon us, and teams will begin working to craft their 2023 rosters in the coming months. In this series of offseason previews, we will look at what each team has to work with and their biggest needs. Today we continue with the Houston Texans offseason preview.

As a reminder, here are dates to keep in mind for the 2023 NFL offseason:

March 7: deadline for teams to use the franchise tag
March 13: legal tampering period opens
March 15: NFL free agency begins and the new league year starts
April 21: deadline for restricted free agents to sign offer sheets
April 27-29: NFL draft
May 1: deadline for teams to exercise 5th-year options on 2020 first-round draft picks
July 15: deadline for franchise tag players to sign an extension

2022 Summary

The Texans’ 2022 season was miserable. They were so miserable that they were in a position to land the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft heading into the Week 18. Unfortunately, they even managed to fumble that one.

Houston beat the Colts in Week 18 in a meaningless slop game to win their way out of the top pick in the draft, costing them potential draft capital. The Week 18 blunder even cost Lovie Smith his job.

I’m not mad about it. As a Bears fan, I tip my hat to Lovie Smith and say thank you, sir. The Texans now have to pay the Bears to get that pick back or watch another team (possibly the same Colts team they beat to get into this predicament) trade up and take their desired QB of the future.

Now that’s dysfunction!

Key Positional Needs

Here’s where the Texans need to find help this offseason:

QB
EDGE
G
WR
C

Key Free Agents

Here’s a look at the Texans upcoming key free agents:

Scott Quessenberry (C)
Justin McCray (G)
Rasheem Green (DE)
Phillip Dorsett (WR)
Chris Moore (WR)
O.J. Howard (TE)
Jordan Akins (TE)

Salary Cap & Draft Capital

Here’s a look at the salary cap room and draft capital that the Texans have to work with this offseason:

Current draft picks: 2 (1), 12 (1), 33 (2), 65 (3), 73 (3), 104 (4), 138 (5), 179 (6), 188 (6), 201 (6), 203 (6), 239 (7)
Cap space: $40.8M

Offseason Outlook

The good news for Houston is that they have a new head coach, one I’m actually pretty excited about for them. They’ve also got seven picks in the first five rounds of the draft and north of $40 million in cap space.

With a few cuts, they could even get up to roughly $55 million in cap space. They’re in a pretty good spot right now. At least as far as a rebuilding team is concerned.