2021 Houston Texans season

2021 Houston Texans season
Owner	Janice and D. Cal McNair
General manager	Nick Caserio
Head coach	David Culley
Home field	NRG Stadium
Uniform

The 2021 season will be the Houston Texans' upcoming 20th season in the National Football League and the first under new head coach David Culley. They will attempt to improve on their 4–12 season from last year and make the playoffs following a one year absence. This will also mark the first time since 2010 that long-time defensive end J.J. Watt is not on the roster, as he was released by the Texans on February 12 and then signed with the Arizona Cardinals 17 days later on March 1, 2021. This reunited Watt with former teammate DeAndre Hopkins, who was traded to the Cardinals one year prior after playing for the Texans from 2013 to 2019.

Offseason

Signings

Position	Player	Age	2020 team	Contract
QB	Tyrod Taylor	32	Los Angeles Chargers	1 year, $12.5 million
RB	Phillip Lindsay	27	Denver Broncos	1 year, $3.5 million
RB	Mark Ingram Jr.	31	Baltimore Ravens	1 year, $3 million
RB	Rex Burkhead	30	New England Patriots
WR	Andre Roberts	33	Buffalo Bills	2 years, $5.95 million
WR	Chris Moore	28	Baltimore Ravens	1 year, $5.95 million
WR	Alex Erickson	28	Cincinnati Bengals	1 year, no details
WR	Donte Moncrief	28	New England Patriots	1 year, no details
WR	Chris Conley	28	Jacksonville Jaguars	1 year, no details
TE	Paul Quessenberry	29	New England Patriots	1 year, no details
OG	Justin McCray	29	Atlanta Falcons	2 years, $4 million
OG	Lane Taylor	31	Green Bay Packers	1 year, no details
C	Cole Toner	30	Los Angeles Chargers	1 year, no details
C	Justin Britt	30	Did not play	1 year, $5 million
DT	Maliek Collins	26	Las Vegas Raiders	1 year, $6 million
DT	Vincent Taylor	27	Cleveland Browns	1 year, $2 million
LB	Kevin Pierre-Louis	29	Washington Football Team	2 years, $8 million
LB	Jordan Jenkins	27	New York Jets	2 years, $6 million
LB	Christian Kirksey	29	Green Bay Packers	1 year, $4.5 million
LB	Kamu Grugier-Hill	27	Miami Dolphins	1 year, $3.25 million
LB	Joe Thomas	30	Dallas Cowboys	1 year, $2 million
LB	Derek Rivers	27	Los Angeles Rams	1 year, $1.3 million
LB	Tae Davis	25	Cleveland Browns	1 year, no details
LB	Hardy Nickerson Jr.	27	Minnesota Vikings	1 year, no details
CB	Terrance Mitchell	29	Cleveland Browns	2 years, $7.5 million
CB	Tavierre Thomas	25	Cleveland Browns	2 years, no details
CB	Desmond King	26	Tennessee Titans	1 year, $3.5 million
CB	Tremon Smith	25	Indianapolis Colts	1 year, $1.13 million
S	Terrence Brooks	29	New England Patriots	1 year, $2 million
P	Cameron Johnston	29	Philadelphia Eagles	3 years, $8 million

Re-Signings

Position	Player	Age	Contract
RB	Dontrell Hilliard	26	1 year, $1.25 million
RB	Buddy Howell	24	1 year, no details
TE	Pharaoh Brown	27	1 year, $2.2 million
CB	Vernon Hargreaves	26	1 year, no details
CB	Cornell Armstrong	26	1 year, no details
LS	Jon Weeks	35	1 year, 1.075 million

Departures

Position	Player	Age	2021 team
QB	Ryan Finley	26	TBD
RB	Duke Johnson	27	TBD
FB	Cullen Gillaspia	26	New York Giants
WR	Chad Hansen	26	TBD
WR	Steven Mitchell	26	TBD
TE	Darren Fells	34	Detroit Lions
OG	Senio Kelemete	31	TBD
OG	Zach Fulton	29	New York Giants
OG	Beau Benzschawel	25	Washington Football Team
C	Nick Martin	28	Las Vegas Raiders
DE	J. J. Watt	31	Arizona Cardinals
DT	Carlos Watkins	28	Dallas Cowboys
CB	Mark Fields	24	San Francisco 49ers
CB	Brandon Williams	28	TBD
P	Bryan Anger	32	Dallas Cowboys
LS	Anthony Kukwa	28	TBD

Trades

March 17	To Houston Texans Shaq Lawson WAS's 2021 sixth round pick	To Miami Dolphins Benardrick McKinney 2021 7th round pcik
	To Houston Texans Marcus Cannon 2021 fifth round pick DAL's 2021 sixth round pick	To New England Patriots ARI's 2021 fourth round pick 2021 sixth round pick
March 18	To Houston Texans Ryan Izzo	To New England Patriots 2022 seventh round pick
March 19	To Houston Texans Ryan Finley 2021 seventh round pick	To Cincinnati Bengals MIA's 2021 sixth round pick

Draft

Main article: 2021 NFL Draft

2021 Houston Texans draft
Round	Pick	Player	Position	College	Notes
3	67	Davis Mills	QB	Stanford
3	89	Nico Collins	WR	Michigan	from Cleveland via Carolina
5	147	Brevin Jordan	TE	Miami (FL)
5	170	Garret Wallow	LB	TCU	from Cleveland via Jacksonville and L.A. Rams
6	195	Roy Lopez	DT	Arizona	from Dallas via New England
Made roster    †   Pro Football Hall of Fame    *   Made at least one Pro Bowl during career

Staff

Houston Texans staff

	Front office Owner/CEO/chairman – Cal McNair President – Greg Grissom General manager – Nick Caserio Executive vice president/general counsel – Greg Kondritz Executive director of player personnel – James Liipfert Assistant director of player personnel – Chris Blanco Co-directors of college scouting – Mozique McCurtis and John Richter Director of football operations – Clay Hampton Director of pro scouting – Ronnie McGill Assistant director of pro scouting – D. J. Debick Head coaches Head coach – DeMeco Ryans Assistant head coach/running backs – Danny Barrett Offensive coaches Offensive coordinator – Bobby Slowik Quarterbacks – Jerrod Johnson Wide receivers/offensive passing game coordinator – Ben McDaniels Tight ends – Jake Moreland Offensive line – Chris Strausser Assistant offensive line – Cole Popovich Assistant offensive line – Zach Yenser Senior offensive assistant – Bill Lazor Offensive assistant – Jarrod James Offensive assistant – Mike Snyder Offensive quality control – Leander Wallace			Defensive coaches Defensive coordinator – Matt Burke Defensive passing game coordinator – Cory Undlin Defensive line – Rod Wright Assistant defensive line – Nate Ollie Linebackers – Billy Davis Defensive backs – Dino Vasso Safeties – Stephen Adegoke Defensive assistant – Sean Baker Defensive assistant – Ben Bolling Defensive assistant – Ryan Milus Special teams coaches Special teams coordinator – Frank Ross Assistant special teams coordinator – Will Burnham Support staff Assistant to the coaches – Jake Olson Applied Sports Science Director of Applied Sports Science – Marc Lewis Applied Sports Science Coordinator – Cole Gardner Applied Sports Science Apprentice – Tyler Wang Strength and Conditioning Head strength and conditioning – Mike Eubanks Assistant strength and conditioning – Chris Cervantes Assistant strength and conditioning – Joe Distor Assistant strength and conditioning – Pat Moorer → Coaching staff → Management → More NFL staffs

Current roster

Houston Texans roster

Quarterbacks 16 Tim Boyle 18 Case Keenum 10 Davis Mills  7 C. J. Stroud Running backs 47 Andrew Beck FB 44 British Brooks 34 Troy Hairston FB 42 Jawhar Jordan 28 Joe Mixon 33 Dare Ogunbowale 31 Dameon Pierce 38 J. J. Taylor Wide receivers 85 Noah Brown 12 Nico Collins  3 Tank Dell  1 Stefon Diggs 19 Xavier Hutchinson 83 Jadon Janke 81 Jaxon Janke 88 Johnny Johnson III  8 John Metchie III 82 Steven Sims 26 Ben Skowronek 89 Jared Wayne  2 Robert Woods Tight ends  9 Brevin Jordan 40 Dalton Keene 84 Teagan Quitoriano 86 Dalton Schultz 87 Cade Stover

Offensive linemen 64 Nick Broeker G 60 Dieter Eiselen G 57 Blake Fisher T 53 Kendrick Green C 76 Kenyon Green G 67 Charlie Heck T 77 LaDarius Henderson G 71 Tytus Howard T 69 Shaq Mason G 68 Jarrett Patterson C 75 David Sharpe T 70 Juice Scruggs G 72 Jaylon Thomas G 78 Laremy Tunsil T 66 Kilian Zierer T (Int.) Defensive linemen 58 McTelvin Agim DT 51 Will Anderson Jr. DE 96 Denico Autry DE 95 Derek Barnett DE 50 Solomon Byrd DE 94 Khalil Davis DT 97 Mario Edwards Jr. DE 91 Folorunso Fatukasi DT 90 Ali Gaye DE 59 Marcus Harris DT 93 Kurt Hinish DT 92 Dylan Horton DE -- Jerry Hughes DE 55 Danielle Hunter DE 79 Pheldarius Payne DE 98 Tim Settle DT

Linebackers  0 Azeez Al-Shaair OLB 49 Tarique Barnes OLB 35 Jake Hansen OLB 48 Christian Harris OLB 43 Neville Hewitt OLB 56 Jamal Hill OLB 13 Del'Shawn Phillips OLB 22 Jacob Phillips OLB 45 Max Tooley OLB 39 Henry To'oTo'o MLB Defensive backs 17 Kris Boyd CB 30 Myles Bryant CB 41 Calen Bullock FS  4 Mike Ford CB 21 C. J. Henderson CB 36 Brandon Hill FS 32 Lonnie Johnson Jr. FS 25 Desmond King CB 14 Kamari Lassiter CB 23 Eric Murray SS 11 Jeff Okudah CB  5 Jalen Pitre SS 27 Troy Pride CB 37 D'Angelo Ross CB 29 M. J. Stewart FS 24 Derek Stingley Jr. CB 20 Jimmie Ward FS Special teams 15 Kaʻimi Fairbairn K  6 Tommy Townsend P 46 Jon Weeks LS

Rookies in italics Roster updated July 9, 2024 Depth chart Transactions 90 active (+1 exempt) → AFC rosters → NFC rosters

Preseason

Week	Date	Time (CT)	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue	TV	Recap
1	August 14	7:00 p.m.	at Green Bay Packers			Lambeau Field	KTRK
2	August 21	7:00 p.m.	at Dallas Cowboys			AT&T Stadium
3	August 28	7:00 p.m.	Tampa Bay Buccaneers			NRG Stadium	KTRK

Regular season

Schedule

The Texans' 2021 schedule was announced on May 12.

Week	Date	Time (CT)	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue	TV	Recap
1	September 12	12:00 p.m.	Jacksonville Jaguars			NRG Stadium	CBS
2	September 19	12:00 p.m.	at Cleveland Browns			FirstEnergy Stadium	CBS
3	September 23	7:20 p.m.	Carolina Panthers			NRG Stadium	NFLN
4	October 3	12:00 p.m.	at Buffalo Bills			Highmark Stadium	CBS
5	October 10	12:00 p.m.	New England Patriots			NRG Stadium	CBS
6	October 17	12:00 p.m.	at Indianapolis Colts			Lucas Oil Stadium	CBS
7	October 24	3:25 p.m.	at Arizona Cardinals			State Farm Stadium	CBS
8	October 31	12:00 p.m.	Los Angeles Rams			NRG Stadium	Fox
9	November 7	12:00 p.m.	at Miami Dolphins			Hard Rock Stadium	Fox
10	Bye
11	November 21	12:00 p.m.	at Tennessee Titans			Nissan Stadium	CBS
12	November 28	12:00 p.m.	New York Jets			NRG Stadium	CBS
13	December 5	12:00 p.m.	Indianapolis Colts			NRG Stadium	CBS
14	December 12	12:00 p.m.	Seattle Seahawks			NRG Stadium	Fox
15	December 19	12:00 p.m.	at Jacksonville Jaguars			TIAA Bank Field	CBS
16	December 26	12:00 p.m.	Los Angeles Chargers			NRG Stadium	CBS
17	January 2	3:05 p.m.	at San Francisco 49ers			Levi's Stadium	CBS
18	January 9	12:00 p.m.	Tennessee Titans			NRG Stadium	CBS

Notes:

• Intra-division opponents are in bold text.
• Networks and times from Weeks 5–18 are subject to change as a result of flexible scheduling.
• Week 18 is subject to being flexed to Saturday, January 8.

External links

• Official website