Frauds!

The Houston Texans were supposed to be better than this. Before the 2024 NFL season, the Texans were considered by many to be a potential Super Bowl contender as they were headed into year two of the C.J. Stroud-DeMeco Ryans era after last season's remarkable year where the Texans went from picking 2nd overall in the 2023 draft, to nearly making all the way to the AFC title game with a rookie head coach and quarterback. But with surprising 32-27 loss at the awful Tennessee Titans, the Texans proved to the rest of the league what I have been saying for weeks, this team is a pretender and very fraudulent.

This was a humiliating loss for a team that was widely seen as one of the NFL's best teams entering 2024. Stroud, who had been picked by many to win the MVP award going into the season, has appeared overwhelmed and has been very inconsistent, throughout the season. Despite his unquestionable talent, the Texans' choice to rely so much on their young signal-caller has backfired, and there is no doubt that there has been some regression from last season's offensive rookie of the year in his sophomore season.

Throughout the season as a whole, the Texans' offense has been very unimpressive, particularly in the passing game. Stroud and the wide receivers haven't been in sync for some time, although Joe Mixon has had a fantastic season running the ball. Sure, the receiving room has had a lot of injuries, such as Stefon Diggs, who tore his ACL a few weeks ago, and Nico Collins, who missed several weeks early in the season. But even before those injuries, this offense spent the majority of the season at best being mediocre. To be fair to Stroud, the offensive line struggled in pass protection for a lot of the season leaving Stroud under constant pressure.

On paper, the Texans may have improved over the offseason, but on the field, they are still a team with glaring flaws. In all likelihood, Stroud will be better than what we have seen from his second year, and he is not the first nor will he be last player to suffer from a sophomore slump. That said, when just looking at the remainder of this season, the Texans aren't ready to be taken seriously as a legit Super Bowl contender, as evidenced by this head-scratching loss to the Titans in Week 12. Until they address their deficiencies and find consistency on both sides of the ball, the Texans should be on fraud watch.