An Injection of Fresh Talent and a New Approach are Exactly What C.J. Stroud and the Texans Need to Emerge from Fantasy Football Limbo

Kevin Szafraniec
June 20, 2025

Kevin Szafraniec details how the Texans offense went from one of the most exciting in the league to one of the most uninspiring in the matter of a year and how recent moves could turn things around in 2025.

Fantasy championships aren’t won by chasing last year’s production – they’re secured by managers who understand how team-level changes create cascading effects throughout a roster. This exhaustive 32-team outlook series leverages our proprietary metrics and tools to identify these critical transitions before your leaguemates catch on.

The Houston Texans came into 2024 riding high after first-year head coach Demeco Ryans and rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud ushered in an improbable turnaround. In 2023, Houston went from having the second overall pick in the draft to winning the AFC South and advancing to the Divisional Round of the playoffs.

Following their success, Houston went all-in last offseason, trading for big-name veterans Stefon Diggs and Joe Mixon to add to their core of young skill position talent. Despite strong returns early on, a string of injuries and poor execution ultimately smothered the high expectations from a few months earlier.

Largely due to a strong defense and a weak division, the Texans won the AFC South for a second consecutive year in 2024, beating the Chargers in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs before losing to the Chiefs a week later. Based on being one of the final eight NFL teams to be alive at the end of the year, Houston’s season would be characterized as a success by most accounts. However, it is difficult not to feel like the team took a significant step backward after their meteoric rise in 2023.

After making a concerted effort to retool the aspects of their offense that held the team back last season, are the Texans poised to deliver on the promise they showed in Stroud’s rookie season?

Don’t miss the other installments in our comprehensive 2025 Team Breakdown series:

So Much Balance Isn’t Necessarily a Good Thing

The Texans have finished 10-7 in each of Ryans’ two seasons as head coach. Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowick was receiving plenty of praise, and even some head coaching buzz, following his first season in Houston. However, he found himself out of a job at the conclusion of 2024 after leading a stagnant offense and watching Stroud regress as a passer.

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Kevin Szafraniec

Full-time Cat Dad, Sneakerhead, Record Collector, LOTR Fanboy, and Jeopardy Enthusiast. Fantasy football writer and beatmaker in my free time. Follow me on X and Bluesky @thecatdadff

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