Houston Texans prospect arguably has the most work to do

The Houston Texans are looking for a major increase in production and quality in 2024. They hope to have more wins, better performances from their players and a deeper push into the playoffs. For that to happen, they need their best players to get a little better, their new free agent acquisitions to be as good as ever, and young, developing talents to take a big step forward.

These latter types of players are often the ones people look at when talking about guys who have the potential to “break out” and redefine their expectations. Pro Football Focus recently looked at every team in the AFC and decided which player, from which team, is most likely to escape. For Texans, it was a rather unexpected name.

Looking at players who had a solid or unremarkable year in 2023, the last name we thought would get the PFF seal of approval was Juice Scruggs, but that’s exactly who they think will ultimately break out for the Texans from Houston.

Scruggs was a second-round pick out of Penn State, not exactly a college known for producing unimpressive talent. So he came from a great program and had the rookie hype, with many believing Scruggs could have been a late first round draft pick.

He fell in the second round and the Texans took over guard, a much-needed position. However, injuries derailed the start of his career and he only returned towards the end of the season, well into the final third of games.

At that point, you could tell he was no match for the rest of the team. He was slower than expected and he didn’t have the same pop on the offensive line that we saw in college. This was largely due to the fact that he did not have the necessary time to develop over the course of the season, as so many others did.

So it stands to reason that Scruggs could break through in 2024, but with the team’s load, it’s hard to say for sure who exactly is most likely to change things significantly this upcoming season.