The Houston Texans are among a handful of teams who can peak ahead to the postseason.
Houston clinched its second straight AFC South title with a Week 15 win over the Miami Dolphins. Since then, DeMeco Ryans' squad has fallen to the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens, two conference playoff contenders.
At 9-7, the Texans are locked into the AFC's No. 4 seed entering their Week 18 game against the Tennessee Titans. However, Ryans does not plan on sitting his starters.
"Going into this game, I mentioned to all of my guys that everybody needs to be ready to go," Ryans said Monday, per KPRC's Aaron Wilson. "And that's where we are. Everybody will be out there playing, and we'll see how the game goes."
Ryans wants to build more momentum before the playoffs following Saturday's 31-2 loss to Baltimore.
"We got to go play better. Our last outing on the field was not good enough, not representative of who we are offensively, defensively," Ryans added. "It's not a good representation of our team entirely. So we got to go out, we got to play better football."
They're playoff-bound, but the Texans haven't met expectations this year.
No other NFL team has a winning record and a negative point differential (-9). Houston has gone 4-1 inside a weak division but 1-5 against winning teams. The offense has fallen from 12th to 21st in total yards, with C.J. Stroud's quarterback rating dipping from 100.8 to 86.0 in his second season.
The Texans will nevertheless get another home playoff game. Last year, they trounced the Cleveland Browns in the first round before getting eliminated by Baltimore.
As of now, Houston would host the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card Round. However, the Texans could face the Ravens again if the Steelers win the AFC North. The Los Angeles Chargers would rise to the fifth seed with a win and Steelers loss in Week 18.
Ryans sounds intent on giving Stroud and Co. a tune-up game against the 3-13 Titans this Sunday. The matchup starts at 1 p.m. ET at Nissan Stadium.
