Houston Texans

Air Raid — Spread it out, tempo, spacing.
Team fit 81.2 B+ · Read the full guide →

Tampa 2 — Rush four, rally and tackle.
Team fit 85.3 A−

Defense first, second and third here; everything else is support staff. The face of it is Will Anderson Jr (LE, 95).

Reality check: the game rates Stroud a below-average starter (79). The real Stroud opened the year in the MVP conversation, but Houston's 0-4 start is now a 2-5 record after he managed 153 yards in an overtime loss to the Giants. The climb-out-of-the-hole story is running out of road.

Nico Collins (WR, 90) is the headliner. 96 catching — hands you never worry about; 95 catch in traffic — catches it through contact like the defender is not there. Everything this offense does is built to get him the ball in the situations those numbers describe.

C.J. Stroud (81) at quarterback is serviceable rather than special; the stars around him are asked to make him right. The drop to the second option is gentle — Dalton Schultz (87) is a headliner on half the teams in the league. And the line is the fire alarm: a bottom-four unit by the ratings (75.6 average). Every long-developing concept is a negotiation with it.

Will Anderson Jr (LE, 95) sets the terms. 97 finesse moves — wins with bend and hands — the finesse half of a rush; 93 hit power — arrives with bad intentions — ball carriers remember him; 92 power moves — wins with power — the long arm and the bull rush, your tackle going backward. Offenses spend the week accounting for him, and the rest of this defense eats in the space that creates.

And he has company at the top: Danielle Hunter (92), Derek Stingley Jr (92) also rate 90+, giving this roster 3 defenders at that level — something only 5 teams in the league can say. Two corners at 85+ (Derek Stingley Jr 92, Jalen Pitre 86, Kamari Lassiter 85) is rare — only 4 teams have it — and it is what lets this defense call man coverage without holding its breath.

Ka'imi Fairbairn (81) kicks — 96 leg, 89 accuracy. Kai Kroeger (74) punts — 91 leg, 78 accuracy. Top return man is Jaylin Noel (83 return).

Offense: Jaylin Noel (WR, 74 OVR) — a 93 speed buried at 74 overall. Speed is the one trait that plays at any overall — it travels to any package, any formation, any Sunday.

Defense: an honest bench. No buried star, no trait that betrays the overall. What you see is what is there.