The Texans spent the weeks before cutdown day juggling injuries and shuffling the bottom of the roster, but the move that stands out most is the one they made along the offensive line. Houston entered the 53-man deadline already dealing with Jayden Higgins going on season-ending injured reserve, then saw Tank Dell land on IR with a designation to return. Even with those hits, the team still had enough depth to make the final decisions tough.
That’s where the real problem came into focus: Houston kept too many blockers.
The Texans finished with 12 offensive linemen on the roster, a number that goes well beyond what most teams carry. Usually, clubs keep nine or 10.
Eleven is already unusual. Twelve is, as the numbers show, almost unheard of, especially when only five linemen are on the field at once.
And this wasn’t a case of Houston ignoring the line. Quite the opposite.
Protection has been a sore spot for years, and the front office has kept throwing resources at it. This offseason alone brought in Keylan Rutledge and Febechi Nwaiwu in the draft, plus Wyatt Teller, Evan Brown, and Braden Smith in free agency.
Then, on cutdown day, the Texans added Nathan Thomas in a trade.
The names on the final roster tell the story: Aireontae Ersery, Trent Brown, Blake Fischer, Ed Ingram, Sam Hagen, Jake Andrews, and the rest joined the group to make that dozen. Houston clearly wanted options, but the result was overkill.
That overstuffed line came at a cost. Lewis Bond, Justin Watson, and Noah Whittington were among the surprise cuts, and those spots were effectively swallowed up by the extra linemen.
There’s no question the Texans have reasons to be cautious. C.J.
Stroud has been impacted by shaky protection, the passing game has taken a step back since his rookie year, and the run game has also suffered. The line has been Houston’s weakest area for some time, and the team has tried hard to fix it.
Still, the roster math looks off. Thomas could have been avoided, and Houston should have cut one more lineman. That would have opened the door for two more players elsewhere.
There is real upside in the group they kept. Rutledge is still a rookie, so there’s uncertainty there, and Smith is dealing with a foot injury.
But the depth behind them is strong. Smith and Brown will battle for the right tackle job once Smith is healthy, and Brown already has a Pro Bowl on his résumé.
Teller, meanwhile, gives Houston a bench option that most teams would love to have.
So the Texans’ thinking is easy to follow. They’ve been burned before, and they didn’t want to leave themselves thin up front again. But carrying 12 offensive linemen was still too much, and it left the rest of the roster short where it mattered.
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Special teams value, blocking effort, route consistency and versatility all carry real weight in Ryans evaluation, especially for receivers trying to separate in a crowded room. For a team building its identity around discipline and execution, the final decision figures to reward players who can handle more than one job, even if the more explosive traits are the ones that tend to grab attention first. [Read more 🡒]