INDIANAPOLIS — The Houston Texans open up the season against the Indianapolis Colts in a game you can watch LIVE on KHOU 11 Sunday at noon.
The team has gone from the AFC South doormat before last season to being a team with 16-1 odds at MGM Grand to win it all.
Get ready for the season with Texans Countdown to Kickoff in the video window above!
The Texans made a remarkable turnaround last season with first-year coach DeMeco Ryans and rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud to go from worst to first in the AFC South. They spent the offseason upgrading their roster by adding star receiver Stefon Diggs, running back Joe Mixon and pass rusher Danielle Hunter, raising hopes that this could be their year.
The team should be improved thanks to the new additions and the continued development of last year’s AP Offensive Player of the Year Stroud and defensive end Will Anderson Jr., who won the defensive rookie honor. They are expected to win their division again and have Super Bowl aspirations, but they have a difficult schedule with a Nov. 10 game against Detroit and games against Kansas City and Baltimore four days apart in December.
Stroud and a stacked group of receivers should be the team’s biggest strength. The second overall pick in the 2023 draft threw for 4,108 yards with 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions last season.
Nico Collins returns after finishing with a career-high 1,297 yards receiving and eight touchdowns last year. He’ll pair with Diggs, who has had six straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons, to give the Texans two elite receivers. They also return Tank Dell, who had 709 yards receiving with seven scores as a rookie before breaking his leg in the 11th game. The receiving group also includes veteran Robert Woods and John Metchie III, a standout at Alabama, who had a great preseason in his second year back after missing his rookie season fighting cancer.
While Houston’s defensive end combination of Hunter and Anderson should be another strength of the team, the interior defensive line isn’t nearly as strong. The Texans signed Folorunso Fatukasi and Mario Edwards to one-year deals this offseason and they’ll start at the defensive tackle spots. Fatukasi was picked up after he was released by the Jaguars and Edwards has bounced around a lot and Houston is his fifth team in six seasons.