4 mistakes the Houston Texans must avoid in the off-season

The Houston Texans have enough cap space and draft assets to improve their team moving into the 2019 NFL season.

The off-season represents a time of hope for every team in the NFL, for the most part, the 32 NFL team’s are bolstering their rosters throughout the seven-month stretch; and all have at least a chance to improve their opportunity to compete for a Super Bowl. However, once the regular season starts, that same period of time can be a team’s Achilles heel if they make the wrong choices.

For the Houston Texans, there is no off-season more significant in the history of the franchise than the upcoming 2019 NFL season and the next couple of seasons moving forward. Not only are the Texans looking to build on top of their successful regular season winning the AFC South with an 11-5 campaign in 2018, but they will also look to take advantage of Deshaun Watson‘s rookie contract by constructing a roster built to win.

Drafted in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft, the Texans still have Watson under contract for two more seasons in his four-year rookie scale contract, and potentially one more if they decide to pick up the fifth-year option in his contract. Texans have the opportunity to sign their free agents and other top tier players hitting the market with Watson’s cap hit only taking up a small percentage of the team’s cap space.

Currently, the Texans will enter the off-season with three draft picks in the first two rounds, and $78 million in cap space, per Over The Cap. With such great assets, there will be potential for headache-inducing transactions. Hopefully, general manager Brian Gaine, and Bill O’Brien can avoid these four mistakes.