What does the future hold for the Houston Texans?

Photo by Darla S Tamulitis, La Vita Loca Photography
Copyright 2017, All Rights Reserved

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved

HOUSTON, TEXAS (December 17, 2017) The Houston Texans and the Jacksonville Jaguars have faced off 32 times in regular season and postseason games with the Texans winning 19 games and the Jaguars winning 13 games. Today's 45-7 lost by Houston was the worse to their AFL South rival since they began playing each other in 2002. The Jaguars held on to their lead in the AFC South with two regular season game to  go in 2017. On the other side of the coin, Houston dropped to 4-10 and are on-track to their worst season since 2013. In 2012, they went 2-14 in Gary Kubiak's last season as the Texans' head coach. Kubiak was fired with three games to go in the season. Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips took over the final three games; losing all three before Bill O'Brien was hired to bring the Texans out of the cellar.

Photo by Darla S Tamulitis, La Vita Loca Photography
Copyright 2017, All Rights Reserved

2017 will go down as the worst season under O'Brien's leadership. Many blame him for their lack of success, but many of the misfortunes that hindered Houston in 2017 came from outside forces; DeShaun Watson (shown above) and J.J. Watt (shown left) injuries and Brian Cushing's suspension, to name a few.

What is obvious is that the Texans need to make some changes and they need to begin making changes on January 1, 2018. The two remaining games for Houston are a December 25 match-up against the AFC East Champion Pittsburgh Steelers at NRG Stadium and a New Years Eve game against Indianapolis on the road. Pittsburgh comes to Houston as the overwhelming favorite while the Colts are having a season similar to Houston.

No matter what happens in the final two games, changes need to be made. Will O'Brien be around to lead the Texans in 2018? Who knows. Will Watson recover from his injury and return to his early season form? Only time will tell. Will J.J. Watt return to the active roster or will he retire? I do not know. What I do know is this. Some people on the Texans' roster; players, coaches, and front office personal will not be around in 2018. That IS the nature of professional sports.