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The Houston metropolitan area is one of the nation’s most fertile grounds for high school football talent.
Check out the rosters of some of the top college football teams. Houston and its sprawling suburbs is listed as the hometown of many great young football players.
NFL Hall-of-Famers like wide receiver Cliff Branch, linebacker Mike Singletary, defensive end Micheal Strahan, running back Eric Dickerson, and center Alan Faneca all played high school football in the Houston area.
It is hard to believe that the city of Houston’s largest college football teams (University of Houston, Rice, and Texas Southern) have never won a national title in the NCAA’s FBS or FCS divisions.
The Houston Oilers went from “Luv Ya Blue” to the Tennessee Waltz
The American Football League’s Houston “Luv ya Blue” Oilers were the last pro football franchise based in Houston to win a championship title.
The 1960 and 1961 Houston Oilers (owned by “Bottom Line” Bud Adams) won the AFL title during the league’s first two seasons.
Houston’s Astrodome was still a dream at that point. Those early Oilers teams played on the football field used by the University of Houston.
That famous Columbia blue and white Houston Oilers uniform featured an iconic oil derrick on each side of the helmet.
The 1970’s Houston Oilers were coached by the popular Bum Phillips.
Coach Phillips’ Oilers vs. Terry Bradshaw’s Pittsburgh Steelers games were always brutal match-ups between two no-nonsense football teams supported by their equally hard-working communities.
The 1970’s Houston Oilers launched the “Luv ya Blue” era for the city.
There was even a catchy (but rather cheesy) Houston Oilers fight song which became quite popular with the team’s fans.
A common theme heard in Houston during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s was that team owner Bud Adams (it’s OK to “Boo!” here) was threatening to move his Oilers out of the 50,000 seat Houston Astrodome.
He deemed the facility too small to make the kind of money that Adams desired in order to keep his pro football team in Houston.
The owner whined for years about wanting a bigger stadium (primarily paid for by local taxpayers, of course). He frequently talked-up a possible relocation of the Oilers to Jacksonville, Florida.
Bud Adams had been been bluffing but effectively shot himself in the foot with the loyal NFL fans in Houston. Neither party trusted each other anymore.
Adams eventually cut a deal to move his NFL franchise to Tennessee beginning in 1997.
The newly-dubbed Tennessee Titans played in Memphis for a few years while their shiny new football stadium was being completed in Nashville.
Enter – The Houston Texans
America’s fourth largest city holds 2.5 million people within the city limits. More than seven million live in the metropolitan area. They were left without an NFL team to cheer for.
The NFL wasn’t going to allow Houston (and its large, lucrative advertising market) to go very long without another pro football franchise.
The expansion Houston Texans (ugh – I still don’t care for the new team’s nickname) began play in the year 2002.
The new owner paid an incredible $1 billion to buy another NFL franchise for Houston.
Houston has now supported its newest NFL team with 22 years of sellout crowds in the new NRG Stadium – located just a few hundred yards from the still-standing iconic Astrodome.
The new Houston Texans are now a perfect 0-22 in championship futility. This team has yet to even play in a single AFC Championship game.
Then again, Houston’s arch-enemy Dallas Cowboys haven’t appeared in a title game this century, either!
Houston joins Cleveland, Detroit, and Jacksonville as the “Four Horsemen of NFL Frustration.” None of those four pro football teams has played in a Super Bowl.
But this year (really!) might be different for the Houston Texans!
This NFL franchise has made some incredible strides in the past three years.
The biggest positive move came when Houston traded troubled young quarterback Deshaun Watson to the Cleveland Browns.
Watson had 24(!) sexual misconduct lawsuits filed against him – most surfacing after the 2020 COVID season. The Texans shipped Deshaun Watson to Cleveland in March, 2022 in exchange for three years of first round selections in 2022, 2023, and 2024 and a few lower round picks.
Houston has utilized those picks to secure a starting offensive guard Tauron Green (2022 pick), a talented defensive end Will Anderson, Jr. (2023’s NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year), and flipped the 2024 first round pick from Cleveland to make deals which landed three other starting players.
Another portion of the Texans’ puzzle was solved the next year in 2023.
First time head coach DeMeco Ryans (a former Texans linebacker) was named the team’s newest head coach just two years ago.
He became the sixth different head coach for this relatively young NFL franchise.
Also coming aboard in 2023 was first round selection quarterback C.J. Stroud. The former Ohio State quarterback has been a pleasant surprise with his leadership skills and on-field performance for the Texans.
Stroud was named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2023.
His talent and calm demeanor on the field helped the Texans leap from 3-13-1 in 2022 to a 10-7 playoff team during his first season.
The 2024 Houston Texans posted another 10-7 record and captured another playoff berth. The Texans lost the eventual AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs in Round 2 last season.
Off-season acquisitions and a favorable schedule give Texans fans hope in 2025
There are many reasons to believe that this year’s Houston Texans will be a legitimate contender in a very tough AFC.
Coach DeMeco Ryans was the former defensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers. He has transformed the Texans’ defense into a much more formidable unit. Houston’s 27th ranked defense has climbed into the upper half of the NFL in just two seasons.
Expect the Houston defense to continue improving in 2025.
The Houston offense has been needing more help – especially at wide receiver, running back, and in the offensive line.
Houston sent a lowly 7th round pick to Jacksonville to bring former Texas A&M wide receiver Christian Kirk to the Texans. The versatile Kirk was injured mid-season in 2024 with a broken collarbone.
The Texans also utilized this spring’s NFL draft to add Iowa State’s two starting wide receivers. Second round pick Jayden Higgins and his Cyclones’ teammate Jaylin Noel (third round) give quarterback C. J. Stroud a couple of talented young wide receivers to spread the field in 2025.
Running game improvements were needed to take pressure of Houston’s passing game. The Texans were a middle-of-the road 15th out of 32 NFL teams in rushing yardage in 2024.
Former Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb recently signed a one year contract to come to Houston. He joins holdover (and former Cincinnati Bengals) running back Joe Mixon in the Texans’ backfield this fall.
This one-two combination should make for an improved running game.
Then there are the offensive line issues.
The Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud was sacked an incredible 52 times last season. That was the second highest total in the entire NFL.
The Texans have made a few upgrades (thus far) in recent months to bolster the offensive line’s shortcomings.
Houston used their second round draft pick to select an offensive lineman and haved added a few veteran players who were deemed expendable by their former teams. The offensive line remains the team’s biggest question mark entering the 2025 season.
Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud would help his O-line in pass protection by making quicker passing decisions, too.
Houston Texans schedule is favorable for another 10+ win season
This team plays in one of the worst divisions in the NFL. The AFC South features three competitors coming off losing seasons in 2024.
Indianapolis was 8-9 last year with Jacksonville (4-13) and Tennessee (3-14) bringing up the rear of a lousy division.
This year’s Houston Texans will open with tough road games at the Los Angeles Rams and at Tampa Bay in early September.
Houston will hit the road for games against recent playoff juggernauts like the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs later this season, too.
A Thanksgiving Day home game is coming against perennial playoff contender Buffalo.
Las Vegas odds makers believe that the Texans will win more than nine games again this year. That would almost guarantee that Houston captures a third straight AFC South title by season’s end.
Playing the three best AFC teams will serve as a measuring stick
The good news/bad news for Houston is that playing regular season games against a trio of the AFC’s top playoff contenders in recent years – Kansas City, Baltimore, and Buffalo – will test this team.
Victories against any or all of those teams in the regular season should give the Texans added confidence during the playoffs.
Houston’s improving defense plus an upgraded offense featuring a couple of young speedy wide receivers and two veteran running backs makes football fans in Houston eager to get this season underway.
Former Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips famously said that his team had knocked on the door during their first playoff season. They beat on the door the following season.
The third time, he wanted his team to kick that, uh…”son of a gun” in!
Two straight 10-7 seasons and early playoff losses have the 2025 Houston Texans ready to kick-in that proverbial playoff door. This team and city are hungry to reach the AFC Championship game for the first time in franchise history.