About a year ago, the Texans’ offense appeared set to dominate from the wide receiver position.
Veteran star Nico Collins and promising second-year receiver Tank Dell were in the fold when general manager Nick Caserio and head coach DeMeco Ryan pulled nothing short of a coup with the trade for perennial Pro Bowl receiver Stefon Diggs.
It just didn’t work out quite as planned.
All three receivers dealt with injuries last season, with Diggs and Dell both having their seasons cut short by injury. Now going into this free agency period, which officially starts March 12, the Texans’ receiver prospects aren’t nearly as promising with the likelihood that Dell’s ACL injury will force him to miss most, if not all, of the upcoming season and unless Diggs is willing to give the team a big discount he will leave in free agency after just one year and $22 million later.
This has put the Texans in a position to once again upgrade the receiver corps, giving CJ Stroud another top target and taking some of the pressure off Collins.
The Texans have taken steps to address the need with a trade with AFC South rival Jacksonville. The Jaguars are sending Christian Kirk this way in exchange for the Texans’ 2026 seventh-round draft pick. The deal can’t become official until Wednesday when the new league year begins.
But let’s not start making claims that the offense has been revived because the 28-year-old Kirk is coming off a season-ending collarbone injury and all indications are the Jaguars were planning to cut the former Texas A&M receiver had the Texans not come along and picked up his $16.5 million contract.
Clearly, Kirk is excited about a new start after catching just 27 passes for 379 yards in eight games last season. If Kirk can return to his 2022 production level, when he caught 84 balls for 1,108 yards and eight touchdowns, then that excitement will return.
“My preparation for the upcoming season is already underway, and the only way from here is up,” Kirk said via an Instagram post. “I’ll be back stronger than ever, and I’m excited for this next chapter with the Texans—I promise it’ll be my best one yet.”
Perhaps you were looking for a sexier wide receiver signing like Amari Cooper, Devante Adams or DeAndre Hopkins. While there is an outside chance Caserio and Ryans could pull off another surprise, with just a little more than $5 million in cap space at this point.
Whatever the case, the Texans need to do something more to revive the disappointing offensive production. They hired Nick Caley as the new offensive coordinator last month, but now they need bodies to surround Stroud with. In addition to voids at receiver, the Texans also have some holes to plug on the offensive line, which played a huge part in Stroud being among the most sacked quarterbacks in the league last season.
It seems that the Texans are leaning toward building the offensive front with the set to release guard Shaq Mason and on Monday, March 10, word came out that the Texans are trading veteran five-time Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil to the Washington Commanders for a package of draft picks in 2025 and 2026.
The Texans were allowed to start talking to free agents on March 10. It will be interesting to see what those conversations lead to.
