The Houston Texans have a few obvious camp battles coming into focus, from the offensive line to the tight end room to the third linebacker spot. But there’s another roster question hiding a little deeper in the weeds, and it could end up shaping how this team looks after cutdown day.
It’s the safety room.
Houston has loaded that group with enough talent and depth to make the final decisions tricky, and that’s before the roster gets trimmed down at the end of August. Right now, the Texans have seven safeties on their 90-man roster: Calen Bullock, Jalen Pitre, Reed Blankenship, Kamari Ramsey, M.J. Stewart, Jaylen Reed, and Kaevon Merriweather.
That’s a crowded room with real starting ability at the top and enough competition underneath to create a legitimate numbers squeeze. In a lot of ways, it looks like one of the strongest safety groups in the league from top to bottom.
The easiest part of the puzzle is the top three. Bullock, Pitre, and Blankenship all look like straightforward 53-man roster locks based on the way they fit as high-end, starting-caliber defenders who should handle a heavy share of the snaps. Pitre, of course, can also be viewed as more of a nickel corner with a versatile role, but the Texans list him as a safety, so he belongs in this discussion.
After those three, things get murkier fast.
Merriweather appears to be the longest shot of the bunch. Houston only brought him in as a late practice squad elevation at the end of last season, and his NFL résumé is still pretty limited: seven starts over three years, with most of his work coming on special teams. He may have a place if the Texans love what he brings, but with this much competition, the practice squad feels like the more realistic landing spot.
That leaves Ramsey, Stewart, and Jaylen Reed fighting for what could be the final spots. Ramsey is the fifth-round rookie, Stewart is the experienced veteran, and Reed is the second-year player who dealt with injury in 2025 but was excellent when he actually got on the field.
If you were forced to make a call today, Ramsey and Reed might have the slight edge. Youth matters, upside matters, and Stewart’s situation is complicated by the injury issues that cost him half of the 2025 season, along with his absence from OTAs and minicamp. Still, nothing is settled yet, and camp plus preseason should do the heavy lifting here.
Whether Houston keeps four safeties again or pushes that number to five or more, this is one of those quiet roster battles worth watching. Anyone who survives this cut will have earned it, and probably made a pretty strong case for a bigger role than people expected once the season starts.
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