The Houston Texans publicly say they are preparing to compete in 2021.
Behind the scenes, general manager Nick Caserio is parting out what he can to provide the necessary capital to execute a successful rebuild.
Take the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All 22 of their starters in the Super Bowl returned. They aren’t sellers. They expect to defend their world championship.
Contrast that with the Texans, and the actions are those of an organization that knows the upcoming 17-game season is going to be a weekly beating as they get upfield to an offseason where the franchise has more resources to truly be competitive.
Safety Justin Reid doesn’t get involved with reading such tea leaves. Instead, he goes by what his director of sports performance at Stanford, Shannon Turley, used to say.
“We had a saying that we always live by, I still live by it today: hand over hand,” Reid said. “What that translates to is you can only control the tasks that is happening right now. You can’t control what’s happening a week from now. You can’t control two weeks from now. You can only take pride in and attack the moment that you’re in right now. So, that has always been my mentality for really kind of every phase of my life.”
For Reid and the players and coaches, what is on the slate is Week 1, an encounter with the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Central Time at NRG Stadium.
“They [the front office] are going to make their moves, that’s his job to make for the team, for the future, for the franchise in general,” said Reid. “My job and our job as players and coaches is to use the tools that we have at our disposal to go out there and win a football game on Sunday.”
The Texans are home underdogs to the Jaguars at +3.5, according to Tipico.