The Houston Texans aren’t high on the midseason power rankings list of Peter King.
The Houston Texans have finished their bye week and the NFL is at the midseason point of the 2020 season. Up to this point of the schedule the Texans have just one win and six losses, and more than that they have a lot of very important decisions to make as well.
Not only do the Texans have roster decisions to make this week, but after the season ends the they need to find a new head coach, figure out who will be the general manager, and they must find players to fix parts of both the offense and defense.
Not only do they have to excel at those decisions, but the Texans need to get through the rest of this season, and mostly keep franchise quarterback Deshaun Watson healthy, as the team will go where he goes from here on out.
Peter King of NBC Sports’ Football Morning in America released his midseason power rankings and it is hard not to disagree with the Houston Texans ranking on his list. Out of 32 teams the Texans are ranked 28th overall, and looking closer at King’s list, five of the Top 7 teams in these power rankings have already defeated Houston this season. That shows everyone the high-level of teams that the Texans have battled in the first half of the season.
In his midseason power rankings, King wrote the following on the Houston Texans as they are 1-6 overall:
"“The franchise is in the pits, with no GM, significantly over the cap in 2021, and no first or second-round pick next April. But Deshaun Watson at age 25 is good bait to attract a good coach for a rebuild.”"
King also wrote a little about the firing of former head coach Bill O’Brien, but let’s take about the above comments by King. He is correct in listing the issues the Houston Texans have moving forward, but at least they are fixable if the front office makes the correct hires and decisions from here on out.
Any coach would be excited to have Deshaun Watson as their starting quarterback while trying to re-work a franchise that just one season ago won a playoff game. The Texans have some good players on their roster, and to go with their franchise quarterback, the Texans have a franchise left tackle with Laremy Tunsil, so that is always a positive in a season that has been a negative.
What is hurting the Houston Texans is the lack of draft choices in the first and second rounds in 2021, but remember this also happened to the team back in 2018 when the team didn’t make a pick until the third round.
That said, basically the only players left on the roster from the 2018 draft who contribute are Justin Reid and Jordan Akins, both third round picks. Peter Kalambayi and Keke Coutee are still on the roster, but 2020 hasn’t been their greatest season to date.
Houston Texans: What exactly is next for the team this season and in 2021?
Many knew the start of the season would be tough for the Houston Texans with the season starting against three very strong teams in the Chiefs, Ravens and Steelers, but the loss to the Minnesota Vikings and even the OT loss to the Tennessee Titans still sting, and the Green Bay game was what it was.
Not many teams would come out of that gauntlet stretch of games with must success either, but the Texans could easily have three wins if they would have finished against the Titans, and had a better first half against the Vikings.
Again, the positive as King wrote is the Texans have Deshaun Watson as the starting quarterback, and that’s something to be exciting about for the rest of the season. Having him as the QB1 for the Texans will bring interest from many talented potential head coach and general manager candidates, so here is another plus in a season that hasn’t had many cheers.
The salary cap issues for the Texans after this season will be a bit to overcome, but there are expiring contracts for both Kenny Stills and Will Fuller. Those two wide receivers could be traded within the next couple days if the Texans feel that is a decision they want to make, or they could wait until the end of the season to make a decision on both players.
All-in-all the ranking of the Texans by Peter King is about right, and there should be no disagreements with where the Texans were placed.
All the franchise can do now in 2020 on the field is get through the schedule, not be completely embarrassed, and see where they stand after Week 17 before the really tough decisions are made.