The Texans ended their season with a 28-16 loss to the Patriots, producing only 241 yards of offense with five turnovers. Quarterback C.J. Stroud had seven turnovers in two playoff games.
Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik was the scapegoat a year ago when the Texans lost 23-14 to the Chiefs in the divisional round. Will offensive coordinator Nick Caley see the door after an even-worse offensive performance in the 2025 playoffs?
Texans coach DeMeco Ryans was noncommittal when asked about Caley’s future with the team.
“With the coaching staff, with our players, I’m evaluating everything as we go throughout the week,” Ryans said, via Jonathan Alexander of the Houston Chronicle.
It is similar to the comment Ryans made about Slowik after last season before firing Slowik a week later.
Stroud defended Caley, showing support that Slowik did not have.
“I want to nip that in the bud as well,” Stroud said Monday. “It’s on me as well. It’s on everybody. . . . I’m not just going to put it on him. I’ll raise my hand and say, ‘Me.’”
Still, with former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, former Giants head coach Brian Daboll, Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken and Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady among the high-profile offensive coordinators who could be available for the Texans, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Houston moves on from Caley.
The Texans had a pretty miserable time on the field in New England on Sunday and their day didn’t get any better once they started to make their way back to Houston after the 28-16 loss.
The team’s flight back home was delayed for several hours because of weather and Greg Bailey of KTRK in Houston reports they also had to make an unscheduled stop on the way to Texas.
Bailey reported at 8:12 a.m. ET on Monday that the team finally landed in Houston.
The delay obviously won’t hamper preparations for future games, but a long time to sit with thoughts about all that went wrong against the Patriots wasn’t what anyone with the Texans was hoping for in the hours after the loss.
The Texans lost in the divisional round of the playoffs for the third straight year and there wasn’t much reason to debate the reasons why they fell short against the Patriots on Sunday.
Quarterback C.J. Stroud threw four interceptions in the first half, including one that was returned for a touchdown, and he could never generate enough offensive momentum to make the most of Houston’s defense keeping them in the game well into the fourth quarter. Stroud wound up 20-of-47 for 212 yards in the 28-16 loss and said after the game that he was “just being careless with the football” on a day when ball security would have made a major difference.
“I look back and I just feel like I let people down, and I’m not happy with that,” Stroud said, via a transcript from the Patriots. “It hurts, and I’m not naïve to it. I didn’t play my best this year, but I’m going to respond. I’m going to keep my chest up, my chin up high, and I’m going to just keep battling forward.”
Stroud made reference to his play over the entire season and it was the second straight year of diminishing returns after he was the offensive rookie of the year. Stroud was asked about the perception that he has failed to grow as a player since the splashy start to his career.
“No, I mean, everybody is entitled to their own opinion,” Stroud said. “I know that I’m still getting better, and I’ve still got a lot of things to figure out. Year three for me. It will be year four next year, and I’m still learning every day. Had a new system this year and new guys and it’s something I’m still getting adjusted to. That’s no excuses, just I’ve got to learn from that. I don’t try to — I try my best to forget successes and failures. Regardless of what it is in that specific season, I’m going to learn from this, and I’m going to move on, I’ll be better, and I’m going to be back.”
The Texans had a subpar offensive line and a lackluster running game most of the season and injuries thinned their receiving options on Sunday, so Stroud is not the only place things fell short offensively for the Texans. The quarterback bears the burden, however, and he’ll need to make good on his vow to get better as the Texans move toward the kind of long-term contractual decisions that will chart the franchise’s course through the coming years.
During last Monday night’s wild-card win over the Steelers, Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair wore eye black strips with a message written on them: “stop the genocide.”
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, the NFL fined Al-Shaair $11,593 for violating the league’s rule against personal messages.
The fine was not listed among the various fines from the six wild-card games, which were posted by the league on Saturday. The weekly fines announced by the league relate only to situations involving on-field playing rules.
Al-Shaair wore the message prior to Sunday’s division-round against the Patriots, but not during it.
The “stop the genocide” message relates to the Israeli military operations in Gaza, following the October 2023 terror attack. Israel has denied allegations that it has engaged in genocide in response to the October 2023 incident. In recent years, Al-Shaair has supported Palestinian causes via the “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign.
“If my platform can bring even a little hope to families in Palestine, then that is what I want to use it for,” Al-Shaair said during the 2025 regular season.
After Sunday’s game, Al-Shaair said he knew he’d be fined for the message. He added that he was told he’d be removed from the contest against the Patriots, if he wore the message again.
“At the end of the day, it’s bigger than me,” Al-Shaair told reporters after the game. “But things that are going on makes people uncomfortable. Imagine how those people feel. I think that’s the biggest thing. I have no affiliation, no connection to these people, other than the fact that I’m a human being.”
He also raised the question of why other players (he specifically mentioned current Patriots and former Texans receiver Stefon Diggs) have been permitted to play despite repeatedly wearing messages on their eye black. It does indeed seem that more players now do it. At one point, the NFL had a very strict policy against it — to the point where such messages (whatever the content) rarely if ever could be seen during games.
In 2024, the league fined 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa $11,255 for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat on the field after an October 27 game. The league announced the fine after the election.
The official rules contemplate a certain amount of leeway when it comes to personal messages. From Rule 5, Section 4, Article 8 of the NFL rulebook: “Throughout the period on game day that a player is visible to the stadium and television audience (including in pregame warm-ups, in the bench area, and during postgame interviews in the locker room or on the field), players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages either in writing or illustration, unless such message has been approved in advance by the League office. Items to celebrate anniversaries or memorable events, or to honor or commemorate individuals, such as helmet decals, and arm bands and jersey patches on players’ uniforms, are prohibited unless approved in advance by the League office. All such items approved by the League office, if any, must relate to team or League events or personages. The League will not grant permission for any club or player to wear, display, or otherwise convey messages, through helmet decals, arm bands, jersey patches, mouthpieces, or other items affixed to game uniforms or equipment, which relate to political activities or causes, other non-football events, causes or campaigns, or charitable causes or campaigns. Further, any such approved items must be modest in size, tasteful, non-commercial, and non-controversial; must not be worn for more than one football season; and if approved for use by a specific team, must not be worn by players on other teams in the League.”
Based on the language of the rule, Al-Shaair likely faces another fine for wearing the message during pregame warmups on Sunday, since he was seen on the TV coverage with the message on the eye black strips.
Because the fines are not usually announced, it’s generally not known which players have been disciplined. It’s also unknown which specific players have received permission to display personal messages.
The rule has been around for years. In the 1985 playoffs, Bears quarterback Jim McMahon was fined $5,000 for wearing an Adidas headband. The next week, in the NFC Championship against the Rams, McMahon wore a headband with the last name of then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle written on it.
Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad first half Sunday. It was one of the worst first halves of a playoff game ever, as Stroud threw four interceptions, including a pick-six.
The Texans had Davis Mills sitting on the bench.
Mills was 3-0 as a starter in place of an injured Stroud this season, throwing five touchdowns and an interception.
Yet, DeMeco Ryans said he never considered making a change at quarterback.
“C.J. is our guy,” Ryans said, via a postgame transcript. “I believed that he could come back out in the second half and flip it. I believed that he could play better, and he did that in the second half. He did play better. We had some positive drives in the second half. I believed that he would do that, and he did that. As I always tell our guys at halftime: It doesn’t matter what happened in the first half. You have to flush it, remove it, and you just have to go out and finish the right way.”
Stroud didn’t have any turnovers in the second half, but he was only 10-of-21 for 88 yards. It wasn’t good enough for the Texans to overcome the 21-10 halftime deficit because of Stroud’s play.
The Texans now have a decision about Stroud’s future: Is he their franchise quarterback? The first decision is whether to exercise his fifth-year option for 2027, and then, at some point, they’ll have to decide on his long-term future. Stroud is eligible for a contract extension this offseason, but seven turnovers in two playoff games should give the Texans pause.
As ESPN analyst Troy Aikman said during the broadcast, “CJ Stroud has been chasing his rookie success for the last two years. He’s not been the same player. We’ve not seen the development from him. There’s a reason for that, and it has to be addressed.”
