The Houston Texans shocked the football world in 2023 and took the NFL by storm, fully announcing their presence by demolishing the Cleveland Browns in the Wild Card round. They’ll need some young players to step up, though, in order to take the next step toward Super Bowl contention. This process starts with training camp, where players will be battling each other day in and day out for several weeks in preparation for the upcoming season.
Let's take a look at four NFL training camp battles that will help determine the Texans’ fate for the 2024 season. Fans and coaches should keep an eye on these competitions.
CB2 – Kamari Lassiter, Jeff Okudah and CJ Henderson
The Texans selected Derek Stingley Jr. with the third overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft, and they are hoping that the former LSU star can become a cornerstone of their secondary.
Yet, even if Stingley Jr. is able to become a lockdown defender who can create an island and take receivers out of the play, Houston still has the other side of the field to worry about.
Without an adequate corner playing opposite Stingley Jr., teams will either utilize their secondary options or scheme up play calls, pre-snap motions and formations that move their go-to pass catcher away from Stingley Jr., forcing somebody else to cover him.
Luckily for Texans fans, the team has several players who in theory should be capable of playing that role.
Jeff Okudah holds Top-5 pick pedigree and the Texans must hope that he still has some upside to tap into. Okudah was a star at Ohio State and was projected to be the next generational cornerback who would dominate the NFL. He certainly hasn’t lived up to his potential, but the talent that he always had is still there.
Perhaps a change of scenery is all he needed, and Okudah can fulfill his promise in Space City.
The Texans invested a second-round pick to acquire Kamari Lassiter in the 2024 NFL draft, and they’ll be hoping that Lassiter proves himself worthy of this pick.
Lassiter struggles with top-end speed, which isn’t ideal but also isn’t necessarily a death sentence for a cornerback. His disappointing 40-yard-dash time was part of the reason why he wasn’t a first-round pick, but judging a player primarily on their ability to sprint 40 yards without pads on, seems kind of silly to begin with.
Lassiter is an elite football player, a fluid athlete who can shadow defenders with ease and make plays on the ball.
CJ Henderson is another former first-round pick who struggled with the team that drafted him and joined the Texans for a fresh start to revitalize his career. Between Okudah and Henderson, the Texans are hoping that at least one of these reclamation projects works out. The three players will be competing for the CB2 spot across from Stingley Jr.
CB3: competition between the two who lose out on CB2
Between the three aforementioned cornerbacks, one of them will earn the right to start across from Stingley Jr. Lassiter may have the inside track because of the draft capital that the team invested in him. The two players who lose out in the competition will then be competing against each other for the CB3 role.
While it may seem like a letdown for any of these players to end up as the third cornerback, that position is important to any defense and is only becoming more valuable as offenses spread the ball out more and put more receivers on the field.
Defensive tackle is an open competition between several players
The Texans selected Will Anderson just after taking quarterback CJ Stroud in the 2023 NFL Draft. With the addition of both players, the team quickly rebooted both their offense and their defense.
Anderson might not have become the Von Miller type of edge rusher many had hoped him to be yet, but he’s developed nicely and is certainly a disruptive presence for the Texans' defense.
Danielle Hunter plays across from Anderson and is one of the best pass rushers in the league, but the team can’t rely on two players to carry their entire pass rush. That means the Texans will be looking for somebody to step up alongside Anderson and Hunter and help them out.
This player doesn’t necessarily need to develop into a star. Rather, they just need to be good enough that defenses have to respect them and cannot focus solely on slowing down the two elite edge rushers.
Denico Autry will likely secure one of the starting defensive tackle roles, and Foley Fatukasi, Mario Edwards Jr., Tim Settle and Khalil Davis will likely battle for the other spot.
Fans will want to see Autry put on a dominant camp and leave no doubt that he is worthy of a starting spot. Autry is also somewhat of a tweener who plays both end and tackle, and the Texans will be looking for him to secure the starting tackle spot to solidify the interior of the team’s line.
Autry will need to show that he has the muscle and intensity to consistently hold his own on the interior while battling physical centers and guards.
Next to Autry, the coaches will be looking to see one of Fatukasi, Edwards Jr., Settle or Davis break away from the competition and claim the other starting role.
Edwards Jr. was expected to be a great player coming out of college, but he hasn’t quite had the career he was expected to. Yet he still has the tools to be a disruptive presence. Some players just don’t figure things out until later in their career, and that’s alright. It’s better for a player to develop later than to not develop at all.
The former Florida State star has played both defensive end and defensive tackle in his career, and he can use his speed to catch defenders off balance. However, given his physical strength and the needs of the Texans, Edwards Jr. is a better fit at tackle.
He has speed, but doesn’t quite have enough to excel on the edge. His speed plays up on the interior, though. Putting him at tackle will give him a speed advantage compared to most of the players he’ll be going up against. This might be just the change that Edwards Jr. needs to break out and become a real impactful player.
Texans fans should look for Edwards Jr. to showcase the talent he’s always had and fight for a spa in the defensive tackle rotation. If he’s able to separate himself and win the job next to Autry outright, the team will be even better for it.
Wide receiver: Tank Dell vs. Nico Collins
Dell and Collins were two of the more impactful players for the Texans last season, and they were both critical to the sudden and significant improvement in the team's passing game. While Stroud was likely the most important figure, a quarterback is only as good as his pass catchers.
Stefon Diggs will probably be the team's new number-one receiver, but Dell and Collins hold the key to the development of the offense. Their growth will be critical to taking pressure off of Diggs and preventing opposing defensive coordinators from throwing an endless stream of double teams, or even triple teams, at Stroud’s go-to target. Even the best receivers in the league struggle to get open consistently when multiple defenders are covering them.
If defenses are able to key in on Diggs without any fear of what the other Texans’ receivers can do, it will be extremely detrimental to the team’s offensive success. Ideally, the other Texans’ receivers will produce right from the beginning and defenses won’t even think about throwing too many defenders at Diggs. If they do double or triple team Diggs, though, the rest of the Texans’ receiving corps must be prepared to make them pay for it.
Follow Us
Subscribe
