Though the 2025 NFL season is still young, the Houston Texans' offense appears to be a problem.

Sitting in the basement of the AFC South at 0-2, the Texans' offense has failed to record 300 total yards in two straight games, with starting quarterback CJ Stroud having already been sacked six times and pressured 11 on just 51 passing attempts.

But what is the underlying problem? Is Stroud not making the right decisions? Is he not getting enough support on the ground from rushers like Nick Chubb and Woody Marks? Or is it the offensive line not allowing the team to execute Nick Caley's offense, which often involves deep passes down the field?

Discussing that very question on ESPN's NFL Live, Mina Kimes noted that it isn't one single issue, but instead an “operational issue” across the entire offense.

“You look a lot more comfortable than CJ Stroud did last night. 13 different Browns got pressured. 13. How is that even possible? That sounds outrageous. All offseason we were told that even though it didn't look like they fixed the offensive line on paper, well, we're going to put more on our quarterback's plate and mentally he's going to be able to solve it in a new scheme. It is not playing out that way early on for the reasons that Dan described,” Kimes explained.

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“This is an operational issue. This is not just about the bad offensive line or running backs not picking up the blitz. It's the whole thing. It's the quarterback. It's the scheme. It's the players as well. They got to find a way to triage this by making life easier for Stroud. It feels like at the moment there are no easy buttons for him to push.”

So what can the Texans do about this situation? Well, outside of getting healthy, Kimes did provide a solution, noting that if Houston really wants to make Stroud's life easier, they need to recalibrate the offense to get the ball out of his hands quicker, even if that limits the number of downfield shots to Nico Collins Caley calls each game.

“Last night, Baker Mayfield had 11 passes behind the line of scrimmage. CJ Stroud had two, right?” Kimes asked. “Like I understand not having Christian Kirk in there is maybe throwing a wrench in things. And of course, Tank Dell's not healthy, but they cannot lean on longer developing plays the way that they have so far early in the season, even if Nico Collins is your best receiver downfield, because he is not surviving at this rate.”