Houston Texans News: No mask for Watt; Texans average in rankings

There has been a good amount of Houston Texans news and NFL this past week.

The good part for the Houston Texans news cycle is the fact they have all five rookie draft picks signed and officially members of the franchise. Also with the Texans, there have been opinions all around about what games they must win, and players have given their opinion on what should happen this season.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the NFL has been working on a guard for the helmets of players for the 2020 season, but they will be only recommended, not mandatory. One player who isn’t a fan of wearing a face guard on his helmet to play football is J.J. Watt.

Yahoo! Sports reporter Jason Owens wrote about how the NFL isn’t making the face guards mandatory and mentioned Watt in the article:

"“Houston Texans All-Pro pass rusher J.J. Watt seems a likely culprit behind the lack of a mandate. As he’s made rightful demands of the NFL to come up with a semblance of a COVID-19 safety plan, he’s also balked at this most basic of safety measures.”"

That is a big statement to make by the Yahoo! Sports article, as I’d be willing to guess more players than just Watt gave their opinions to the NFL, but the only difference was Watt said his opinions to the media.

Who knows? Maybe Watt will change his mind and possibly try out the new face guard. Time will tell with that, and also who is to say the NFL doesn’t change their mind with the face guard rule?

Houston Texans News: Are the Texans an average team in 2020?

Over at PFT, within the past week they had their NFL team rankings where the Houston Texans news was that Mike Florio’s list has the Texans ranked 17th in the NFL entering the 2020 season. Is that ranking too low for a team that won the AFC South title the past two seasons?

This is a tough one, but don’t be surprised if the Texans are better than that ranking. A slow start to the season, with some very tough games to start the season, could make the Texans’ record poor as well.

In his PFT rankings, Florio wrote this about the Houston Texans:

"“Deshaun Watson continues to be one of the best quarterbacks in football, but he may not have enough help around him to build on whatever it was that they achieved last year.”"

This way of thinking makes some sense, but the offense isn’t going to be as bad as people seem to think. Yes, losing DeAndre Hopkins and Carlos Hyde is tough, but remember the Texans offense at times last season was very stale and didn’t play up to their potential, either.

Players like Brandin Cooks, Kenny Stills and Will Fuller are good players, but the biggest thing about them this offseason has been can they and will they all stay healthy to give Watson the players he needs to throw the football to?

Also watching Hyde with David Johnson will be very interesting to see as well, and Johnson has a good opportunity in front of him to outperform the numbers by Hyde last season.

The upcoming season is going to be different that what we all are used to with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the new-look Texans roster will also be different. Houston will cause many emotions this season, but this team, for better or worse, won’t be average in 2020.