In the long history of the National Football League, only 12 franchises have yet to win a Super Bowl. That list gets whittled down to just 4 teams if we're looking for teams that have never played in a Super Bowl. But if we take things back even a round further, that leaves the Houston Texans as the only team in NFL history that's never even played in a Conference Championship Game. The fact that the Texans are the league's youngest franchise plays a role in this, but still, you get the point, right?
The promising news for fans in Houston is that the 2025 season likely represents the franchise's best opportunity yet to finally bust through that glass ceiling and give themselves an opportunity to play on the final Sunday of January for a chance to advance to the Super Bowl. Presently, with both the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals eliminated from Playoff contention, that means a new team will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl for the first time since Tom Brady was still in New England. That means to some extent, fresh blood will come out of the AFC.
So that prompts me to ask a necessary question... why can't that team be the Houston Texans?
The Texans are arguably the NFL's hottest team, winners of six straight games with victories over the Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts in that stretch. It's a team that has an identity and a style of play that translates to the postseason. Can you get stops? Can you force turnovers? Can you win in crappy weather? Do you have a quarterback/wide receiver duo that can get hot? Can you run the ball effectively? Can you protect a lead?
For the Texans, the answer to each of those questions is 'Yes,' and as a result, some of the brightest and most well-connected individuals in NFL circles are beginning to seriously consider that Houston could enter the postseason as the favorite to represent the AFC in Super Bowl LX.
"Give me the Texans for a Super Bowl run," NFL insider Jeremy Fowler predicted in a recent ESPN column. "They are 9-2 in their past 11 games. Stroud is back and playing good football. The defense might be the NFL's most feared. Several teams I've talked to after playing Houston have talked at length about that muscle-bruising physical defense. The offensive line has settled down lately. And wide receiver Nico Collins can take over a game. Much will depend on their draw. If the regular season ended right now, the Texans would be in New England in the wild-card round. That's a winnable game."
Even in each of their five losses -- and it's worth mentioning, all five of Houston's losses have come to teams currently in the Playoff field -- there hasn't been a time this season where the Texans have been completely outclassed, nor have they lost a game this year by more than one possession. The Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks are the only other teams that can make this claim.
Texans defense without a doubt 'championship caliber'
What the Texans have proven throughout the season is that any game is a winnable game when you have the best defense in the league, and understandably, Houston's defense may be the unit that inspires the most confidence around the entire NFL when you're considering every team's Super Bowl viability.
"Don't sleep on the Houston Texans," former Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy declared. "If they're in it, I think that they can go to any one of those teams and give them all kinds of problems."
"I was looking at the Houston Texans and I was saying 'Okay, they're the number 7 seed, but I look at all of these teams and they may be the most dangerous team because of that defense," former Super Bowl champion Rodney Harrison added.
"I think Houston can win the Super Bowl," NBC's Jac Collinsworth agreed. "Gosh, they can do everything on defense."
Yes they can, Jac. And if they can do enough on offense, a Super Bowl isn't at all a far-fetched expectation.