Well, although the AFC is the better of the two conferences, the lowest team on the totem pole to begin the season anyway, is the Houston Texans. They've just been in struggle city since all of the Deshaun Watson drama unfolded.
The Texans have won eleven total games in the past three seasons. If you count the interim coach from 2020, the Texans will enter 2023 with their fifth coach since 2020. It must be quite depressing to be a Texans fan lately.
Overall, there's a lot of bad vibes in Houston but there's a bit of hope, maybe.
The Texans hired a new head coach in DeMeco Ryans. It seems like a fairly ok choice. Ryans is still a pretty young guy at 39 years old, he's a former Pro Bowl caliber player who actually played on the Texans for six seasons from 2006-2011. The Texans need a guy like that right about now, a coach that seems to give a crap.
Ryans has been a coach on the 49ers since 2017 and was eventually promoted to defensive coordinator in 2021. Everyone knows how dominant that 49ers defense has been in recent years, so maybe Ryans will be able to coach up the Texans in a similar fashion.
The Texans drafted a highly touted QB prospect in Ohio State's C.J. Stroud in the 2023 NFL Draft. They selected Stroud #2 overall. Stroud seemed like a fine prospect, nothing truly jaw dropping about him in my opinion, but he seems like he could be a good QB.
Texans' new Head Coach DeMeco Ryans pictured in his suit and tie on the left, and rookie QB C.J. Stroud is pictured in his new #7 Texans uniform on the right. Texans fans everywhere are praying that these two men can help turn the franchise around.
The Texans managed to force a game with the Chiefs into overtime last year, so maybe they got some players in Houston despite only winning three games in 2022.
While there's some hope for Houston, that's just it, hope. There's nothing proven over there for me to put them above anyone else in the league right now. Not only did the Texans have a poor win loss record in 2022, but they were statistically at the bottom of the league in many team stats. Same goes for in 2021. 2020 wasn't much better and that was with Watson.
We'll see how it goes.
