Houston Texans fans have experienced a string of rather unexpected success over the past two seasons after the team racked up just 11 total wins from 2020 to 2022.
Led by C.J. Stroud, the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the Texans have won back-to-back AFC South division titles for the fourth time in team history, and for the first time since the franchise’s first two playoff appearances in 2011 and 2012, they have won a playoff game in back-to-back postseasons.
Not many could have seen it coming after their abysmal three-year run leading up to the selection of Stroud, when many fans were convinced that Lovie Smith actually ruined the team’s plans to take Bryce Young by squandering the No. 1 pick with a Week 18 victory in 2022.
But now the Texans are in a position where history might not be on their side.
Aside from the fact that this team has never been to three consecutive postseasons, now one of their division rivals is in position to go from last-to-first with their own quarterback of the future.
The Tennessee Titans, who actually beat the Texans this past season en route to a league-worst 3-14 record, are slated to select No. 1 in this month’s NFL Draft, and the presumptive top selection is Miami’s Cam Ward.
The AFC South is consistently one of the weakest divisions, if not the overall weakest division, in the NFL. In five of the six most recent seasons, including three in a row, the AFC South champion has been the No. 4 seed in the AFC playoffs.
And the Texans aren’t the only AFC South team to execute a last-to-first jump with a top quarterback selection, either.
The Jacksonville Jaguars took Trevor Lawrence with the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, and while they still finished last in his rookie season, a lot of that can probably be pinned on the whole ill-fated Urban Meyer saga. But in year two, Lawrence took a team that had won just 15 games over the previous four seasons and won the AFC South – and a playoff game.
So now it’s happened twice in the last three years.
Are the Titans set up to make it happen for a third time in four?
As we have seen so many times in the past, no matter how flawed a roster might seem, a top quarterback can fix a lot of those issues. And the Titans, even with a relatively flawed roster, have plenty of bright spots on offense who could shine if they find the right quarterback.
Those pieces include running back Tony Pollard, who set a new career-high in rushing yards in his first full season in Nashville, wide receiver Calvin Ridley, who has eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in every full season he’s played since 2020, and tight end Chig Okonkwo, who continues to emerge as a star and absolutely burned the Texans with a 70-yard touchdown in 2024.
And while Ward may have been the seventh-ranked quarterback if he were a part of the 2024 NFL Draft class, that’s not exactly a knock on the five-year college starter, given who those top six are. All six have already given their respective franchises reason to believe in long-term turnarounds.
With an offensive-minded head coach in Brian Callahan who led his own worst-to-first (to Super Bowl) effort as the Cincinnati Bengals’ offensive coordinator with No. 1 pick Joe Burrow in Burrow’s first full and non-injury-plagued season, the Titans might be more than a laughing stock this upcoming season.
And given what the Texans have done, and the Jaguars before them, with top-two quarterback selections in recent years, it would serve Texans fans well to take notice.
