The NFL Draft is far from an exact science. Depending on ownership, management, coaching, or situation, a team's draft strategy could change from one year to the next, and to make the three-day weekend even trickier to navigate is the fact that countless factors -- many of which are out of a team's control -- end up play a part in determining whether a team's draft haul will be one that fans remember forever, or one that everyone will be eager to soon forget.
Over the past few years, the NFL Draft has been mostly kind to the Houston Texans. Since Nick Caserio took over as general manager in 2021, he's been responsible for bringing Nico Collins (89th overall pick), Derek Stingley Jr. (3rd), Jalen Pitre (37th), CJ Stroud (2nd), Will Anderson Jr. (3rd), Tank Dell (69th), Henry To'oTo'o (167th), Kamari Lassiter (42nd) and Calen Bullock (78th) to Houston.
Regardless of if you're out on Stroud after a disastrous postseason or believe that Tank Dell will never return to pre-injury form, this is still a mostly unassailable run of draft success for the Houston Texans, and it at least partially explains why this team has won ten-plus games for each of the last three seasons. But you may have noticed that not a single one of those players lines up along the offensive line, and there lies a problem that still needs to be solved.
The inability to piece together a group of five linemen that the Texans coaching staff and fans alike can feel great about is evidently a blind spot that Caserio has been unable to address since being named GM a little over five years ago, and it was covered in-depth by Toro Times' very own Clayton Anderson late last week. Caserio can tout Houston's success at improving the offensive line from 2024 to 2025 if he'd like, but the fact of the matter is, this group still isn't quite where it should be.
The jury is still out on left tackle Aireontae Ersery, a rookie out of Minnesota who the Texans selected 48th overall last April. Ersery earned playing time right out of the gate, partially due to necessity, and although he certainly looked like a first-year player at times, he was steady enough that the job was never yanked away from him.
But even if Ersery ends up a win for Nick Caserio's draft resume, Kenyon Green, Austin Deculus, Juice Scruggs, Jarrett Patterson, Blake Fisher and LaDarius Henderson all feel like swings and misses. A 14% success rate in drafting the big fellas who keep your quarterback upright is not a strategy for long-term success, especially when you've only take seven bites at that apple out of a possible 41 chances.
So is this a deficiency in the way that Caserio and his scouting staff evaluate the talent of offensive line prospects, or is it that the Texans don't put as much value on offensive linemen as they should? This year's draft may give us a proper answer.
During his end of season press conference, Caserio was asked about the Texans strategy during the NFL Draft, and the 50 year old GM shed some light on how Houston approaches the event.
"I think our philosophy on the Draft is to get good football players in here with the right mentality and mindset, regardless of the position that they play. That's how we approach it, philosophically," Caserio explained, per Keith Cummings of Sports Illustrated. "Whoever comes in this building, at some point they're probably going to have to play."
Now clearly, for the most part at least, this philosophy has worked well for Houston, and coming off a 12-win season, one could argue that the Texans are indeed in a position where they could afford to select best player available every time they're on the clock.
But at some point, Caserio and co. are going to have to realize that there is still a need along the offensive line, and it's important they address it before this issue ends up infecting CJ Stroud more than it already has. Some of the bad habits we saw from Stroud this year were developed in 2024 as he was playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL.
This is part of the reason why NFL Draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah recently mocked Georgia Bulldogs tackle Monroe Freeling to the Houston Texans with the 28th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. ESPN's long-time Draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. mocked a different SEC tackle, Alabama's Kadyn Proctor, to Houston.
"Houston turned its offensive line upside down last offseason in a full makeover effort, but there wasn't enough improvement. The unit was still 30th in pass block win rate at 55.5%, though the sack count dropped from 54 (tied for third most) to 31 (tied for ninth fewest)," Kiper wrote. "There's also the matter of the entire right side being unsigned for 2026. Proctor had all 40 of his career starts atlefttackle (where Aireontae Ersery was this season), but he could slide to right tackle or even inside to guard. The bigger priority is getting capable blockers in front of C.J. Stroud."
Mel Kiper Jr. gets it, and so does Daniel Jeremiah. But all that matters is that Nick Caserio gets it too.