Texans Camp — Sep 3: Smith Shelved Two Days After Making It

The right tackle competition that ended without a decision now has one, and it went against the roster. Braden Smith made the initial 53 on Sunday, and on Tuesday the Texans placed him on injured reserve, per the club's transaction report — no return designation, the foot injury that had already put Trent Brown in front of him — along with rookie tackle Sam Hagen, two tackles off the roster in one transaction. Our last episode carried a hedge — that an injured-reserve move remained possible. It happened. So Brown is the right tackle against Buffalo, and Nathan Thomas, the 230-third pick, who came from Dallas on cutdown day, is the reason there is anybody behind him — the trade was made to cover Smith's foot, per Sahil Goswami. One fix on the page: we called Thomas a 2025 seventh-rounder. His draft year differs by source; the six-foot-five and three-30 are the club's own numbers.

What Nick Caserio did with the waiver window is the analyst's story of the week, and Kenneth Levy at SB Nation laid out the method: the general manager released two injured veterans on Sunday, let the market close on them, and on Tuesday re-signed both to the 53 on identical contracts. Tight end Brevin Jordan and defensive end Dominique Robinson, both out for weeks with lingering injuries per Levy, are Texans again, per the club, and neither is established as available for the opener. "By weekend's end," Levy writes, "the Texans not only retained their priority practice squad players, but they also recouped two veterans back onto the 53-man roster." Caserio's own frame, Tuesday, per the team's site: "We don't view it as 53. We view it as 69, 70 players and everybody's available essentially to play each week." Caserio called rookie guard Keylan Rutledge, who moved from second-team center to a starting interior job during camp, probably Houston's best offensive lineman.

The wire took one Texan. Miami claimed tackle Jarrett Kingston on Monday, per the Dolphins, in a seven-claim batch that made Houston one of six teams to supply it. No other Houston cut has a reported claim. Cornerback Brandon Codrington, a Texan since February, signed to San Francisco's practice squad Tuesday, per the 49ers. Of the veterans we told you to watch for a landing — Brett Rypien, Zay Jones, Sterling Shepard — none has a reported destination as of Wednesday. Safety George Odum, released Sunday, was back on the practice squad Monday.

The practice squad, 16 by the club's announcements: 11 Monday — defensive tackle Dominic Bailey, receiver Lewis Bond, the 200-and-fourth pick, cornerback Bryce Hall, a Texan since August 17 and released 13 days later, linebacker Jamal Hill, cornerback Alijah Huzzie, running back Jawhar Jordan, receiver Josh Kelly, tackle James Neal III, safety Odum, receiver Daniel Sobkowicz, and running back Noah Whittington — so both backs we told you were among the four waived came back. Tuesday, four: defensive end Chris Braswell, one of three members of Tampa Bay's 2024 draft class the Buccaneers cut, per Scott Smith; center Ka'ena De Cambra; tight end Zaire Mitchell-Paden; and receiver Mitchell Tinsley. Wednesday: defensive tackle Junior Tafuna, waived here August 5 and back a month later. Braswell is the only outside addition at the position our last episode called the quiet story — defensive end, where Dylan Horton and Ali Gaye went to injured reserve and Solomon Byrd was waived injured, thinning the room behind Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter. Robinson's return is the other half of the answer, and he is hurt. Caserio on the squad: "legit NFL players that we feel at some point if they had to go out there and play, like we feel comfortable putting them on the field."

The reserve list, per the club's reports: receiver Tank Dell and safety Ja'Marcus Ingram on injured reserve with return designations; defensive end Ali Gaye on injured reserve; E.J. Speed and M.J. Stewart on the reserve physically-unable-to-perform list; Smith and Hagen added Tuesday; and Byrd and Kyonte Hamilton, both waived injured Sunday, reverted. Hamilton is a name our last episode did not carry — the club's count was 20 waived, 10 released and two waived-injured, and we gave you the first two numbers. The receiver room is the five we told you: Nico Collins, Kayshon Boutte, Xavier Hutchinson, Jaylin Noel, who came off the non-football injury list to make it, and Jared Wayne — until Dell is eligible in Week 5.

Back in July we previewed Houston as a 12-win team whose record leaned on the parts our data trusts least — we called it a +16 turnover margin and the league's number-one defense, both exposed to regression, with the league's worst red-zone finishing as the fixable flaw. The numbers: 12 five, the sixth seed, a defense that ranked first in expected points added allowed per play — the measure of how much each snap moved the opponent's expected score — with 28 takeaways, third in the league, under an offense 20-first, and thirtieth running the ball. Cut day made "patch, not plan" literal at receiver. This week made it literal at tackle: the candidate the competition was supposed to be about lasted two days on the roster, the veteran in front of him is the plan, and the trade with Dallas is the depth. The defense's asterisk at end got one edge rusher off Tampa Bay's cuts and one hurt one back from its own. That was our read in July, and it holds. The line just joined the receivers on the unsettled side.

Next is the Bills, Sunday, September 13, in Houston. What to watch: whether Robinson or Jordan practices in game week, and what the first depth chart says about Boutte. The Recap follows the game.

_Data via nflverse._