A hurricane that hit southeast Texas apparently inflicted damage to the roof of the stadium where the Houston Texans play.
Via ABC13.com, the structure appears to have a hole in it.
NRG Stadium officials told ABC13 that they were awaiting a full assessment before making a report.
Sixteen years ago, a hurricane damaged the roof and postponed a game between the Texans and the Ravens.
Houston’s first preseason home game happens on August 17, against the Giants.
The storm made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, with winds of 80 miles per hour.
Free agent defensive end Jerry Hughes has re-signed with the Texans, according to the NFL’s transactions wire.
Hughes, 35, is a Houston-area native who has spent the past two seasons with the Texans.
He started only two games last season, the first time since 2013 that Hughes started fewer than 15 games, and he played 42 percent of the defensive snaps in 17 games. It was the first time in Hughes’ career that he played fewer than 50 percent of the defensive snaps.
Hughes had three sacks last season after nine in 2022.
He will back up starters Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter. Derek Barnett also is among the backups at defensive end.
In his 14-year career with the Colts, Bills and Texans, Hughes has 70 sacks and 142 quarterback hits.
Offensive lineman Kendrick Green tore the meniscus in his right knee against the Steelers on Oct. 1 after a trade to the Texans from Pittsburgh. Green played only four games with three starts last season.
Green is fully healthy heading into training camp.
“I feel great. I’m ready to get after it,” Green said, via video from Aaron Wilson of KPRC. “I’m excited man. I feel great. I’m in the best shape I’ve been in in my whole life, so I’m ready to go.”
Green, who was a healthy scratch for all 17 games for the Steelers in 2022, was acquired by the Texans after former first-round pick Kenyon Green underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in the preseason.
The two will compete for the starting left guard job during training camp.
“I think it’s going to be fun. I’m excited,” Kendrick Green said. “I know a lot of other guys are excited. So we’re going to get after it and see how it comes out.”
The Texans offensive line hasn’t gotten a lot of love outside Houston, but if they stay healthy this year, the Texans will have Laremy Tunsil at left tackle, one of the Greens at left guard, Juice Scruggs at center, Shaq Mason at right guard and Tytus Howard at right tackle.
“We ain’t too worried about rankings from outside sources,” Kendrick Green said. “We ain’t too worried about it. We know what we’ve got in our room. We’ve got a great damn room. I think we’ve got one of the best rooms in the league, and we’re deep. So, it ain’t too many people who got it like that.”
The Texans set a single-season franchise record for sacks with 46 in 2023 and defensive end Will Anderson contributed seven of them.
It was the kind of impact the Texans hoped to see when they selected Anderson third overall in last year’s draft and he was named the defensive rookie of the year as a result of his efforts. Anderson put up those numbers playing on the same front as Jonathan Greenard, who parleyed his 12.5 sacks into a four-year deal with the Vikings.
Greenard’s arrival in Minnesota helped push Danielle Hunter out and Hunter wound up taking over Greenard’s spot in Houston on a two-year deal. During a recent appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Anderson said that Hunter has been “unreal” about “teaching us so much stuff” that he’s picked up since entering the league in 2015 and that getting to work with him this offseason has piqued his interest in what will happen this fall.
“It’s going to be fun,” Anderson said. “I think we will be able to cause a lot of havoc. I am excited to go to war with him.”
Hunter’s addition is one of a handful of moves the Texans made to solidify themselves as a contender in the AFC. If his presence pushes Anderson to new heights, that status should be even stronger by the end of the regular season.
The Texans already had a stacked receiving corps before adding Stefon Diggs. After the trade with the Bills for Diggs, Houston might have the best wide receivers room in the league.
Only a handful of other teams can make a case to match up with Diggs, Tank Dell, Nico Collins, John Metchie III, Ben Skowronek and Steven Sims.
“We’ve got a great group,” Sims told Aaron Wilson of KPRC on Saturday. “I can’t wait to get back to camp. It’s going to be so much fun. I feel like there’s going to be a lot of big plays, a lot of fun, but it’s a business, and it’s work. It’s time to get back to work and I’m excited to go back to work with the group we’ve got I feel like from top to bottom everybody can get it done.”
Sims re-signed with the Texans after contributing as a receiver and core special teams player in four games last season. His biggest play came in the divisional round when he returned a punt 67 yards for the Texans’ only touchdown in a 34-10 loss to the Ravens.
“Had a great return [in the playoffs], but, in the grand scheme of things, it means nothing,” Sims said. “We lost the game, and we didn’t reach our goals. That’s the bottom line. We want to reach our goals, and I want to do everything I can to help the team get to our goal, which is the Super Bowl.”
Houston added running back Joe Mixon, edge rusher Danielle Hunter and Diggs, among others, this offseason. That has the Texans with improved Super Bowl odds for this season.
Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud’s play as a rookie gave rise to a lot of rosy projections about what his future will be in the NFL.
Wide receiver Tank Dell’s view of where things are headed is among the most optimistic. During an appearance on I Am Athlete, Dell pointed to Stroud’s diligence in preparing himself and his teammates for each game as a big reason for his success and that it is the kind of devotion to the craft that can put him in Patrick Mahomes’s class at the top of the of the league’s quarterback rankings.
“He just brings a special type of swag,” Dell said. “I for sure feel like C.J. got the opportunity to be the best quarterback in the league. Not me just saying that because of who he is to me but just like what I’m seeing him do each and every week. What the world sees, they’re seeing exactly what we’re seeing. How he just coming out there as a 21-year-old man going against grown men, and he’s out here just balling every week. How consistent he is. I feel like C.J. gotta keep doing what he’s doing to bridge the gap between him and Mahomes.”
It’s a lofty comparison for any player and particularly for one with as little experience as Stroud, but it’s not hard to understand the excitement Dell and the rest of the Texans have about what is in store for them and for Stroud in the coming years.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is favored to win his third regular season Most Valuable Player award in the upcoming season.
Mahomes’ odds to win MVP are +450 if he wins it at DraftKings.com. If Mahomes does win the award, he’ll join Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Johnny Unitas and Jim Brown as the only three-time winners of the Associated Press MVP award.
In a sign of how much optimism there is after his stellar rookie year, Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud is tied for the second-shortest odds to win MVP, at +850. Bills quarterback Josh Allen is also at +850.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow has the next-best odds, at +900.
Reigning MVP Lamar Jackson is listed at +1400, as are Packers quarterback Jordan Love and 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy.
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts are at +1600.
The non-quarterback with the best odds to win MVP is 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, at +4000.
DeMeco Ryans has only been the Texans’ head coach for one season, but he had a long playing career and a run as an assistant with the 49ers that taught him an important lesson about moving from one year to the next.
Ryans said in an interview with NFL Network that his message to his team heading into the 2024 season has been that they can’t take what happened last year with them. Ryans said the Texans have to “hit reset” and make sure that they are prepared to take the same kind of advantage of opportunities that come their way this time around.
“People talk about how exciting of a year it was, but I throw up a stat to our guys this offseason, like, ‘Look, I know we won some games, but guys, look, we had 10 games within one score, and these games were down to the wire and we had to find a way at the end,’” Ryans said. “That doesn’t change. That’s the NFL. It’s about being smart, being confident in those crucial situations, like the last two minutes of a game. Can you go perform? Can you be clear-minded and go execute the details of your job to the highest level? That’s what it’ll come down to. So I just always remind them, like, ‘Hey, we didn’t just blow everybody out!’ Those games can go either way, and you have to continue to prepare that way coming into this new season. It’s not just going to happen again. You have to start back over at ground zero and work your way back up.”
The Texans’ version of hitting reset this offseason involved acquiring players like wide receiver Stefon Diggs, edge rusher Danielle Hunter, and running back Joe Mixon to complement the core that helped them win the division last year. The influx of talent should help this summer’s building process, but, as Ryans made clear, the Texans aren’t guaranteed anything more than another bite at the apple.
Cornerback Desmond King originally joined the Texans in 2021, and in his first two years with the team, Houston was 7-26-1 and went through two head coaches. He rejoined the Texans in the middle of last season after the Steelers cut him.
King played seven games with three starts in the regular season for Houston in 2023, and then saw action in both playoff games.
The Texans reached the divisional round of the AFC playoffs and now have the best Super Bowl odds they have had in several years.
King re-signed in March.
“I’m going on my fourth year in Houston,” King told Aaron Wilson of KPRC. “I’ve done seen the evolution of the team and the organization just being here for those first couple of years and seeing where it’s at now, knowing my capability and what I can bring to the team, why not be here with Houston? We’re an up-and-coming team, and we’re here to stay. We’re just getting ready for the season and I’m here.”
King has never advanced further than the divisional round, but this arguably is the most talented team he has played on.
“Just honestly, it’s all about staying focused on the goal,” King said. “We know what kind of team we have. That said, you see it every day in the locker room. It’s what we do when we go out there on that field. Yeah, we have the noise. We have the hype behind us, but that’s not out there on that practice field when we’re out there working.
“That’s what it’s about. We’re out there putting blood, sweat and tears in every day. We know what we have and we’ve got to believe in what we have, and that’s what really matters.”
It’s been more than six years since Case Keenum and Stefon Diggs connected on the Minneapolis Miracle. They had one more game together as Vikings teammates, overlapped for a year in Buffalo, and are reunited again in Houston.
Keenum, speaking at a youth football camp, recently gave a glowing endorsement of his past-and-present teammate.
“Yeah, it’s really cool to get back out there and see Stefon on the practice field and to watch him absolutely do some dirty things on some routes that I haven’t seen anybody be able to do,” Keenum said, via KPRC 2. “He’s a dynamic player and he hasn’t lost a step. If anything, he has gotten more savviness and can put some extra sauce on some routes when he needs to and win. He’s done a great job of continuing to build his craft and work his tools, his tool set, and I’m excited to see what he can do in the fall.”
There’s still a story to be told about what went wrong in Buffalo. Keenum was on the team during the home playoff loss to the Bengals, when Diggs showed frustration on the sidelines. Last year, when everything came to a head, Keenum was gone.
Still, with two prior seasons as a Diggs teammate, Keenum surely knows what makes him tick. He can be a great resource for the coaching staff and quarterback C.J. Stroud regarding what it takes to get the most out of him.