Why the Titans have the upper hand on the Houston Texans
By Brady Akins
The Texans 2019 Offseason:
2) Find a way to keep your key players
The Houston Texans’ defense was never a great unit. Even during the 2018 season, the one filled with promise and hope for the future. It was a group that was average across the board, with a handful of stars propping them up as a whole.
Players like Tyrann Mathieu shoring up the secondary, Jadeveon Clowney and JJ Watt teaming up for an elite pass-rushing duo, and their efforts combined allowed the rest of the Houston defense to play above their station. But 2019 showed exactly just how much of an impact those three stars had, and how lost at sea the roster could look without them.
Mathieu is gone. Left in free agency for the Kansas City Chiefs. Clowney is gone (and now back in the AFC South). Traded to the Seattle Seahawks for… not much, actually. Coming off of a nine-sack Pro Bowl season, Clowney was dumped on Seattle for a third-round pick and two players that combined for one start in Houston in 2019. Watt, while still in Houston, was dealing with yet another injury-riddled season that kept him from playing in over half of his team’s games for the third season in four years.
Whatever present the Texans had was starting to slip through the cracks, losing whatever defensive star power they had to injury, mismanaged trades and more alluring suitors in free agency. And whatever future the Houston roster had was slowly starting to fade as well, trading two first-round picks along with a second-rounder for two “pretty good” pieces in left tackle Laremy Tunsil and wide receiver Kenny Stills.