As things sit in late May 2021 for the Houston Texans, Peter King is correct in his assessment of the struggling and rebuilding franchise, with the veteran NFL reporter having them at the bottom of his offseason power rankings.
The Texans news from all of this shouldn’t be surprising, and in fact, it should be expected of a franchise that has had major turnover on their roster since the end of last season. Not only that, the Texans news this offseason has not only included a new general manager (Nick Caserio) and new head coach (David Culley), but there are issues surrounding Deshaun Watson as the starting quarterback or most likely the event he is traded depending on his off-the-field issues.
The only good thing about the Texans news of them being predicted to be a last-place team is the expectations are low, the bar is set even lower, and there is a chance to surprise some folks along the path back to the top of the AFC South and even better than that.
This rebuild is going to take time … a lot of time … and for the Houston Texans, they should have plenty of it because they aren’t going to be ahead of the Indianapolis Colts or the Tennessee Titans anytime soon.
Texans News: King writes about the “feel” of the Texans this offseason
As for King and his power rankings on NBCSports.com, one sentence of his review of the Texans was this:
"“Houston won four games with Watson last year, and the team is significantly worse than a year ago. The franchise has the feel of an expansion team, with Tyrod Taylor scrambling for his life behind a shaky line while keeping the seat warm for Davis Mills, who may or may not be the quarterback of the future.”"
King saying the Texans have the feel of an expansion team is true to a point, and the ’21 season is a year for the Texans to take a deep breath from this offseason and see what the depth of this franchise really is following the Bill O’Brien era.
It will be a good chance to see what the ’21 rookies can bring to the team, and not only that, the ’20 rookies as well as they were used rarely last season. OK, this team does have the feel of an expansion team … which they were back in 2002.
There are some talented players on the Texans roster and good young players who hopefully get the reps needed to show what they are capable of when they are on the field, whether it be training camp, the preseason or one of the 17 regular-season games.
The Texans news from the assessment of Peter King’s power rankings shouldn’t be of disrespect because the Texans haven’t earned any of that yet because they need to prove they can be winners on the field. The problem is they haven’t done that yet, and in all honesty, they don’t have the roster needed to be the best in their own division or conference.
Houston still hasn’t recovered from the playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, or some of the trades made by the former general manager. That said, ’21 is the perfect opportunity for the Texans to finally forgot their past failures and mistakes and start looking ahead to rebuilding this franchise into something special.
To eventually be a special team is going to take a lot of patience, especially this upcoming season as the Texans news currently is of doom and gloom and about a team that is seen as the worst in all of the NFL.