The 2025 NFL Draft Reinforced the Way the Texans Operate
Lessons learned from the profiles of the draft picks
The 2025 NFL Draft is over. The 2026 mock drafts have already started to hit the internet. Before we put a bow on this draft, here are a few things the draft taught us or reinforced about the Houston Texans.
Big Schools Still Rule
Since Nick Caserio took over as general manager of the Houston Texans, have drafted one player who didn’t finish at a Power 5/Power 4 school: Tank Dell. The University of Houston, where Dell played, is now in the Big 12 and considered a Power 4 school.
The Texans haven’t often been linked to smaller school players, though their 30-visit list was peppered with a few. It would have been interesting to see if Grey Zabel, the standout interior offensive lineman from North Dakota State University, would have been picked by the Texans at 25. He was long gone before Houston got on the clock in this year’s draft.
DeMeco Ryans discussed the competition jump for offensive linemen in the pre-draft process. You can deduce that the better competition a player faces, the smaller the jump is for that player. Nick Caserio said it was important to understand who players were successful against when they played well in college.
If a small-school player has dreams of being drafted by the Texans, he needs to hit the portal.