A bit of interesting news hit the NFL media space this morning, as MMQB's Senior NFL Reporter Albert Breer released an eye-opening report about trade deadline plans regarding the Houston Texans. In short, the Sports Illustrated voice made it a point to mention how Houston has been poking around other teams in search for "available running backs and safeties".
While it's not the most shocking of news—considering the disappointing production from both the Texans' backfield and secondary through seven games—it is a level of admission from Houston's front office and coaching staff that the current state of the roster isn't good enough for where they want to go from here on out.
Even worse, it's somewhat of a confession from Houston's decision-makers that many of their offseason additions have failed to live up to what the expectation was upon signing with the team.
The Houston Texans' trade deadline searches are an admission of offseason failure through seven games
While I would hate to reach for low hanging fruit, the reality is that general manager Nick Caserio has been scrambling to seemingly undo a bevy of offseason decisions that he made for the organization during what was supposed to be a historic 25th anniversary campaign. For clarity purposes, let's categorize the different categories in which his moves have affected the team as a whole up until this point.
Offensive line
In the offseason, Caserio and co. invested multiple high-leverage draft picks and salary cap space on several options to help fix the offensive line. Between Keylan Rutledge (26th-overall pick), Febechi Nwaiwu (fourth-round), Wyatt Teller (free agency), Braden Smith (free agency) and Even Brown (free agency), the idea was for Houston to finally field a unit that could operate as the de facto battery of the both the passing and rushing offenses. Instead, its stumbled out of the gate to the tune of still being around a bottom-10 unit in both pass-blocking and run-blocking through seven weeks.
Tight ends
The most egregious part of the tight ends category for Caserio has been the management of both verteran option Brevin Jordan and second-round draft pick Marlin Klein. In Jordan's case, he was yet again nursing an injury all throughout training camp, which virtually ended his ability to audition for the team leading up to week one against the Buffalo Bills. And as many expected, Jordan was cut when rosters were trimmed down to reflect that fact.
However, Jordan was not only eventually brought back, but he was also directly added to the 53-man roster and has been used more than Houston's 59th-overall selection in Klein, who's currently on a streak of four consecutive healthy DNP's for the team. To spend high quality draft compensation on a project tight end during a potential Super Bowl campaign was already suspect enough. But, to prioritize an oft-injured low-impact veteran in Jordan (with all due respect) at the expense of live-game development for said developmental prospect is really where the concerns of roster mismanagement really start to pile up for Caserio.
Running backs
Speaking of roster management concerns, Caserio yet again finds himself facing scrutiny when it came to constructing a competitive running back room in 2026. After losing former starting rusher Joe Mixon to a mystery foot ailment last year, Houston has struggled to look like a professional product out of the backfield.
Last year, the team depending on veteran back Nick Chubb and a rookie Woody Marks to carry the bulk of the load through 17 games. This season, it appeared as though it would be Marks, Jawhar Jordan and a newly-added David Montgomery who would command the reps in the rushing game this campaign. Instead, Jordan was cut during roster cutdown day, and both Montgomery and Marks have struggled to have any real impact out of the gate to start the year.
And now, Jordan and Montgomery are both out for the foreseeable future with injuries, while Marks and the newly-added Emari Demercado will attempt to hold down the fort until potential help arrives. While injuries can't be contributed to Caserio, the lack of an effective second dimension to the offense everywhere else definitely falls at the feet of Houston's sixth-year executive.
Safeties
In what was arguably the biggest bust of a roster move for Caserio in 2026, the acquisition of former Philadelphia Eagles starting safety Reed Blankenship is looking worse and worse by the day. Handing the Super Bowl champion a three-year, $24.75 million contract in the offseason, Blankenship was objectively one of the worst cover-safeties in the NFL through the opening weeks of the season.
He's given up chunk plays, looked bad in man coverage, whiffed on key tackles that would've made dramatic impacts in the respective game played and is now injured thanks to both a concussion and a hand procedure that he had while being out with said head ailment.
Not only was the move financially expensive, but it's been an expensive cost to the quality of secondary play that we've become accustomed to throughout the last few seasons in Houston. The secondary has gone from one of the five or six best in the league to bottom-five in less than one calendar year, and Blankenship's offseason addition will certainly be looked at as a contributing factor for the dramatic fall.
Final point on Caserio
Again, while one can't blame every roster failure on Caserio, there's most than enough evidence to support the thought that this has still been one of Caserio's worst offseasons for the franchise since taking over in 2021 (if not the worst based on the expectations coming into this year).
At a time where lifting a Lombardi trophy has been in the forefront of the minds of coaches, players and fans, Caserio's decisions have contributed to arguably the biggest collective team freefall in the NFL by this stage in the season. We'll see how the trade deadline works out for the Texans, but this news only further confirms the notion that Caserio's seat may be heating up very soon (if not already).
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