Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud did play. He didn’t play long.
In his first game action since his meltdown in the postseason in New England, Stroud played 10 plays in the first possession and led the Texans to a touchdown. He took a seat after Woody Marks’ 20-yard touchdown run.
Stroud went 4-for-6 for 27 yards, and Marks had four carries for 37 yards and one catch for 6 yards.
The Texans took a 17-0 lead in the first quarter. Rookie linebacker Wade Woodaz returned an interception of Fernando Mendoza 80 yards for a touchdown, and Ka’imi Fairbairn added a 51-yard field goal on an eight-play, 33-yard drive directed by backup quarterback Davis Mills.
Stroud had seven turnovers in two playoff games, including four interceptions against the Patriots in the divisional round.
DeMeco Ryans has changed his mind yet again. The Texans head coach said earlier this week his starters would play in Thursday’s preseason game against the Raiders.
Then, on Wednesday, he decided the starters had gotten enough work during the joint practice Tuesday and wouldn’t play in the game.
Now comes word from ESPN that quarterback C.J. Stroud will play.
The team’s defensive starters still won’t play. They don’t need the work. Stroud does.
It will be the first time Stroud has played since his meltdown against the Patriots in the divisional round when he threw four interceptions. He had seven turnovers in two playoff games.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Texans have talked to Stroud’s representation about a contract extension, but the sides are not close. The Texans have exercised the fifth-year option on Stroud’s contract for 2027.
Houston head coach DeMeco Ryans has changed his mind when it comes to playing time for Thursday’s preseason matchup with Las Vegas.
According to multiple reporters, the Texans will now rest their starters against the Raiders this week.
Ryans had previously said that he was planning to play the first unit. But Ryans now feels the starters got enough work in Tuesday’s joint practice.
It’s also notable that second-year receiver Jayden Higgins suffered a torn ACL during Tuesday’s session that will keep him sidelined for the season. Higgins tied for the team lead with six touchdown receptions as a rookie in 2025.
Kickoff between the Texans and Raiders is set for 8 p.m. ET on Thursday night. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.
The Raiders haven’t won a playoff game since 2002. The Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game since 2000. The effort to change things up has included, for the Raiders, adding Tom Brady as an owner and, for the Dolphins, hiring Troy Aikman.
The fact that both are employed as the top game analysts at Fox and ESPN, respectively, creates obvious conflict-of-interest issues. Although the NFL would say, as to each of them, “Where’s the conflict?,” the application of restrictions to their ability to enter team facilities and attend practice shows that the two roles don’t mesh.
The league dropped the ball by not telling Brady to pick a lane, when he was trying to get his bargain-basement slice of the Raiders approved. And with Brady blazing the trail, Aikman (who had long aspired to be a G.M.) decided to walk the same path.
It’s a massive benefit for the Raiders and Dolphins to have a not-secret agent roaming the NFL countryside, attending games and talking to people around the league as part of their broadcasting jobs. No other team enjoys that kind of insight.
Aikman acknowledged the basic fact earlier this year, when it became clear that his short-term consulting gig would become a longer-term arrangement.
“I think the Dolphins were wise in understanding my relationships around the league,” Aikman said. “And knowing that I have information that they don’t have or can’t get. And I think they were smart in taking advantage of that — whether it was through me or through somebody else.”
As to Brady, one Seahawks source recently suggested that the Raiders wouldn’t have hired Klint Kubiak as the team’s latest head coach but for Brady’s access to Kubiak as part of Brady’s Fox gig.
No other team that was considering Kubiak had an opportunity to essentially interview him within the confines of meetings and communications unrelated to a formal interview. Brady worked both of the Seattle playoff games, in both the divisional round and conference-championship round, at a time when teams were figuring out which coaches to hire. Given his separate role as a Raiders owner, Brady had an opportunity to actively evaluate Kubiak that none of the other teams looking for coaches could even begin to duplicate.
None of this will be an issue until the Raiders and/or Dolphins become consistent contenders again. If/when that happens, people with other teams will finally realize that they never should have let this situation exist, and they’ll begin clamoring for a way to undo it.
At that point, the challenge for the NFL will be clear. They created this problem. If they ever try to clean up the mess, they’ll first have to admit that they made it.
Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins found himself in the middle of another practice skirmish during Tuesday’s joint workout with the Texans.
Nothing reached the level of his tussle with teammate Maxx Crosby earlier this summer, but Cousins was upset for similar reasons. He said after the session that “my elbow got hit” when Texans defenders closed in on him in the pocket and that sparked his response.
“I’ve got some scars from some hits in real games where helmets go into armpits and things, and it ruins your season,” Cousins said, via Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “So, I was just asking [Crosby] to just stay off the arm, and I had to remind the Texans as well.”
Cousins was wearing the typical red jersey signifying that no one should contact the quarterback and he wondered why that’s the case given how often it seems to happen.
“I might as well just take the red jersey off because you’re playing with, sometimes, an understood rule that if it’s not understood, then what are we doing?” Cousins said.
That’s a fair question, although it might not be the most pressing one as the Raiders work to figure out when Cousins will give way to first overall pick Fernando Mendoza.
