Difficult financial decisions lie ahead for the Houston Texans, and while there are certainly worse problems an NFL franchise could have than needing to pay two potential franchise cornerstones, it still sets the Texans front office up with some tricky choices to make over the course of the next 12-to-18 months.
Of course, this is exactly what the Houston Texans must've hoped for when they selected Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud with the 2nd overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, and then immediately made a trade to acquire the 3rd overall pick, which was used to select Will Anderson Jr. out of the University of Alabama. If you make a move as bold as that one, you do it with hopes of being able to keep both players in the organization for the long haul, no matter what it may take financially.
However, the calculus of this decision, which once seemed like an absolute no-brainer, has changed ever so slightly over the past three years. There are now factors that the Texans need to consider that weren't necessarily part of the equation previously.
First and foremost, public perception has soured on CJ Stroud to a startling degree over the last two years. After his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2023, Stroud was being mentioned alongside the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, and Lamar Jackson as one of the potential faces of the NFL for the next decade or so. But since that point, Stroud has performed like no better than a middle of the road quarterback, spending more time being carried by the Texans defense than vice versa.
Meanwhile, all across the Texans defense, numerous players have flashed superstar potential, meaning that even beyond Stroud and Anderson, there will be tough financial choices that Houston's front office needs to make. The Texans already signed Derek Stingley Jr. to the highest-paid contract ever for a defensive back, locking the two-time All-Pro corner to a three-year, $90 million contract extension that will keep Stingley in Houston through the 2029 season.
But Stingley isn't the only star in the Houston Texans secondary who will need to be fairly compensated in the near future. It won't be too long before Houston needs to pony up for Kamari Lassiter and Calen Bullock, a pair of second-year studs who emerged as Pro Bowlers and All-Pro candidates during the 2025 season. Anyone who watched the Texans closely this year knows that these two defensive backs are the type of players you don't let leave the building.
And then we get to Will Anderson Jr., who will almost certainly sign an extension before the 2026 season begins. It's fair to say that Anderson has emerged as the biggest star on the Texans roster, and a rock solid case could be made that he's the best player on the team. Anderson was recently named one of the five finalists for the Defensive Player of the Year Award, and it won't be surprising if he finished second in the vote behind Myles Garrett, who set the single-season sack record this year. In fact, it would be totally justified.
Whether Anderson's extension sets the record for the richest deal ever for a non-quarterback, or just approaches it, is almost irrelevant as it relates to Stroud. Even though quarterback is the most important position in football, Stroud's slide -- combined with Houston's success despite it -- has proven that this QB isn't more important than Anderson and potentially even a handful of other players on the opposite side of the ball.
So what does that mean for this offseason? Well, Anderson will in all likelihood be locked in to a long term deal. FanSided's Joshua Queipo recently projected that Anderson will receive a four-year deal worth $184 million for the entire contract and would include $94 million in fully guaranteed new money. If that's the case, you can bet that Stroud's fifth year option will be picked up, and the Texans and their 'franchise quarterback' will revisit negotiations after the 2026 season has concluded, which puts a ton of pressure on Stroud's shoulders heading into the year.
Best case scenario is that Stroud bounce back in year four and gives the Texans the confidence to lock him into a long-term deal as well. That of course creates another set of problems as it relates to Lassiter and Bullock, but again, this is exactly what the Texans signed up for during the 2023 NFL Draft.