4 Texans worthy of making the Pro Bowl

With the Pro-Bowl voting underway, here are four Houston Texans deserving of going to the All-Star Game in the winter, including Deshaun Watson.

Pro Bowl voting is live. In the thick of a tight AFC playoff race, the Houston Texans have their fair share of players worthy of heading to Orlando, Fla. on Jan. 26, 2020.

Four, in specific, stand-out as obvious Pro-Bowl selections. To get them there, Texans fans will be relied upon. They can do so by heading to NFL.com/ProBowlVote to cast their ballots. Voting ends on Dec. 12, it is free and encouraged that multiple ballots are sent in.

During the final two weeks of voting — Nov. 28 to Dec. 12 — fans will be able to vote for their favorite Texans on Twitter. They will be able to do so by tweeting the player’s first and last name, the player’s official handle or a hashtag including their first and last name. All three methods must include the #ProBowlVote hashtag.

When making voting, here are four Texans to keep in mind for Pro Bowl voting:

QB Deshaun Watson

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Deshaun Watson is a full-fledged MVP candidate. His name on the Pro Bowl roster won’t be surprising come January. In fact, come game time in Orlando, Fla., the only thing that would be surprising is not seeing Watson suited up — unless he is in Miami.

Watson is drilling passes at a 70.2% clip, has a career-high 107.1 passer rating, has upped his passing touchdown rate from 5.1% to 6.0% (18) and lowered his interception rate from 1.8% to 1.7%. He has done so while throwing for 2,432 yards, rushing for 279 and tallying five touchdowns on the ground.

If stats don’t do the trick, take a gander at NFL Twitter on Sundays. Seemingly every week, Watson is producing highlight reels with his magical abilities. Combine that with a winning record (6-3), statistical improvement and a broad fan base and Watson is seemingly a lock to make the Pro-Bowl in back-to-back years.

Texans coach Bill O’Brien excited to regain offensive line continuity

Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien is excited for the return of Laremy Tunsil, who will give the offensive line continuity moving forward.

The Houston Texans, after much trial and error, have their offensive line.

A five-man unit of (left to right) Laremy Tunsil, Max Scharping, Nick Martin, Zach Fulton and Tytus Howard has given Houston its best blocking unit in eons. The problem: The quintuplet has struggled to stay together.

With Tunsil, Howard and Fulton each missing at least one start in 2019, the entirety of the unit has just 176 snaps together. In those snaps — worth two games and a half — they have allowed two sacks to Deshaun Watson.

As benefactors of the Week 10 bye, Houston won’t just have 176 snaps logged onto their rebuilt offensive line. Tunsil, who missed Week 9 (shoulder), is expected to come back for Week 11’s tilt with the Baltimore Ravens. Howard (partially torn MCL) returned in Week 9.

“I think any time you can have continuity up front, I mean, obviously that’s a good thing,” said coach Bill O’Brien on Monday. You don’t want to have guys moving in and out based on injuries. You really don’t want that, but sometimes, obviously, that happens and you have to deal with it like any other teams does.”

Houston recently employed the help of Roderick Johnson and Chris Clark to negate the injuries to Tunsil and Howard. That will no longer be the case for the Texans. O’Brien is giddy to get the offensive line he and former General Manager Brian Gaine slaved over to create.

“Any time you can have (Laremy) Tunsil and (Tytus) Howard at tackle, and (Max) Scharping and (Zach) Fulton at guard, Nick Martin at center, that’s a pretty good group and that’s good continuity,” O’Brien continued. “So, hopefully we can have that this week.”

Despite the never-ending rotation of players, the Texans offensive line has produced in 2019. Houston is eighth in the NFL in ESPN‘s Pass Block Win Rate (61%), 11th in adjusted line yards (4.37) and ninth in run-stuffed rate, per Football Outsiders.

The Texans’ offensive line should be together for their fourth start as a cohesive unit on Sunday. From there, the only place to go for Tunsil, Scharping, Martin, Fulton and Howard is up.