Texans to play in primetime this preseason on NFL Network

The Houston Texans will be on a national stage during a preseason game on the NFL Network.

Though it is a preseason game, the 2022 Houston Texans will be playing an exhibition preseason game this August against the reigning and defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams as the game will air on the NFL Network.

Houston getting to play the Rams at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday, Aug. 19 will have a 10 p.m. ET kickoff, 9 p.m. CT on the NFL Network for the second preseason game.

Don’t forget the third and final preseason game, on Thursday, Aug. 25, will see the Texans host the San Francisco 49ers in a game to be streamed on Amazon Prime, with a kickoff time of 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT).

Anytime the Texans can get a primetime game on the national stage — preseason or regular season — it is a big deal because this team is young and getting some snaps in on the national stage at the professional level is huge for those players getting to experience that for the first time.

Having two games this preseason at the national level with the NFL Network and Amazon Prime games also shows that maybe this rebuild is being taken seriously at a national level.

Plus, the Texans will be taking on two opponents who had great success in ’21 with the 49ers winning in the playoffs, while the Rams were the best of all 32 NFL teams by winning the Super Bowl with Sean McVay as their head coach.

Houston Texans: What can we expect this preseason under Lovie Smith?

Though the preseason doesn’t count in the standings, here are some bullet points that would be nice to see the Texans address during the three preseason games, which also includes the first week of the preseason against the New Orleans Saints on Saturday, Aug. 13 at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT):

• Seeing Davis Mills work with getting more accustomed to passing the football to Nico Collins.
• Seeing how the defense works as a complete unit for a half in at least one of the three games.
• Watching Pep Hamilton as the offensive coordinator and understanding how he calls a game.
• Improvement for the defense as a whole, and this goes for the offense too.
• Seeing the Houston Texans being excited about playing football again!

Those are just five examples of things to look forward to, and we didn’t even have to mention the new secondary duo of rookies Jalen Pitre and Derek Stingley Jr.

However you view the preseason, it is still exciting to see the Texans make their appearances on the national stage, and not only that, they can see somewhat how they compare against two of the better teams in the entire NFL as they are in the midst of their rebuild.