2024 NFL Season – Houston Texans Team Preview

Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab break down how Stefon Diggs’ arrival could be detrimental to the Texans and QB CJ Stroud. Listen and subscribe to the “Zero Blitz” podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

The Houston Texans, they’re next on the list, Frank.

All right.

So give me your like, since they don’t have to answer questions about Deshawn.

What is your main concern for Houston?

Yeah, my big concern for the Houston Texans is which Stephen Diggs are we going to get?

Everyone was really, really excited about this exchange and I understand.

The Houston Texans, you look at them and you’re like, wow, you had Stephan Diggs, that offense was so good with CJ Stroud last year.

But I think we need to take a step back and ask ourselves some questions about Stephane Diggs.

He hasn’t had a 100-yard game since Week 6 last year.

And that’s with one of the greatest quarterbacks on the planet throwing under the ball.

Josh Allen, he didn’t have a touchdown in his last seven games last year when the season was on the line against the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs.

He had 21 yards and they lost, I don’t know, will Diggs be happy if Nico Collins is the number one, does he fit right into this team?

He lost a step and we started to see it at the end of last year.

I mean, it worries me when a guy his age has almost two-thirds of a season.

It’s just not right that he might have lost it.

We guys lose our minds pretty quickly in the NFL.

I think if Diggs is happy, if he’s motivated by his trade, we’ve seen Stefan Diggs before and he fits in really well and doesn’t really care if Dell gets the ball in this game and if Nico gets the ball in this game and he ends up being a great teammate and a great receiver for the Texans.

It could certainly happen.

We could also see a scenario where Diggs isn’t actually the player.

He was, he is not happy.

It makes waves, disrupts our chemistry a little.

I think we have not taken sufficient account of this.

Yeah, by the way, you’re saying that could happen, I could come up after this and suddenly find myself sitting there with Santa and the Tooth Fairy, slow dancing in my living room like Stephen Diggs’ idea of ​​a money year, content to probably be the third option sometimes for the Texans.

This seems impossible to me.

So I think what you touched on at the end is the biggest thing that the Texans are going to have to deal with when Diggs is not happy, who handles that and how, right, because, because one thing we’ve heard so much from guys who’ve played the game is that every leader is different in a locker room.

Sometimes you have to have a dog that’s willing to stand up and say, “Hey, it’s not going to work like that here.”

Is this what we are now asking CJ Stroud to do in his sophomore year?

Suddenly you’re asking CJ Stroud, in his second year in the NFL, to do what the last two big-time quarterbacks who had huge success with Stephan Diggs couldn’t do: resist temper tantrums.

I love it, I feel like it’s a great deal for me and it all went so well, so quickly for the Texans.

I think the distraction element is a little underestimated.

You’ve got a group of guys that get along well, that click together, from the staff to the players, Frank.

So I think putting that weird little piece in definitely disrupts the mojo, like if you put a little bit in that dish it could take over and ruin it.

So I think that’s particularly the case here because if he doesn’t get the ball, he doesn’t get paid and we know he wants to get paid.