The Houston Texans are entering an absolutely pivotal offseason in which they must make some obvious upgrades in order to ascend to the next level in the AFC.
Unfortunately, the Texans don't have a whole lot of cap room to help in that department, so they may have to rely an awful lot on the NFL Draft to plug some holes.
Houston owns the 25th overall pick in the first round of the draft this April, but Ian Valentino of The 33rd Team actually feels the Texans would be better off trading down in order to accumulate more assets, which definitely makes sense.
"Veterans like [Stefon] Diggs, Eric Murray, Folorunso Fatukasi, Jimmie Ward, and Denico Autry will be gone sooner rather than later," Valentino wrote. "The only way to plug so many holes in the next two drafts is to have more top-100 picks and hope for the best after that."
Valentino then goes on to identify a potential trade partner for Houston: the Chicago Bears.
"Can the Texans pluck the 39th and 72nd overall picks from Chicago for No. 25?" Valentino wondered. "Those are the types of deals that can solve more problems for this coaching staff."
The Texans won their second straight AFC South division title and captured a playoff win for the second consecutive season this past year, but it's clear that they are still multiple pieces away from being genuine Super Bowl contenders.
With Diggs set to hit free agency and Tank Dell prepared to miss all of next season due to a knee injury, Houston must add some more pieces for C.J. Stroud offensively, and it also must rectify what has been a horrendous offensive line.
We'll see if the Texans are able to strike big in the draft and if they do decide to move down in order to better position themselves to address their issues.
