Texans Clips
The Rams and Seahawks played three nail-biters during the 2025 season and the NFL is banking on another one on Christmas night.
The matchup of NFC West teams will cap a three-game slate on Christmas this year. The Friday night game on December 25 will take place in Seattle and it will be broadcast by Fox.
Los Angeles won 21-19 at home last November, but lost 38-37 in overtime in Seattle later in the regular season. The final meeting between the clubs came in the NFC Championship Game and was a 31-27 Seahawks win.
Netflix will kick off the day’s games with a doubleheader that starts with the Packers visiting the Bears at 1 p.m. ET. The Bills will be in Denver at 4:30 p.m. ET in a rematch of last season’s divisional round game that the Broncos won in overtime.
With Christmas Eve falling on a Thursday, there will also be a game on Amazon Prime Video that night. The Eagles will travel to Houston to face the Texans, so all four games around the Christmas holiday will feature matchups of teams that were in the playoffs last season.
The Texans have gotten another key player under contract.
Houston announced on Thursday that second-round pick Marlin Klein has signed his four-year rookie deal.
The No. 59 overall selection of this year’s draft, Klein — a tight end — played his college ball at Michigan and was part of the 2023 team that won the CFP National Championship.
In 11 games in 2025, Klein caught 24 passes for 248 yards with one touchdown.
He finished his collegiate career with 38 receptions for 364 yards with one TD.
Via Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 Houston, Klein’s contract is worth $8.184 million with a $2.41 million signing bonus.
The Texans signed three more draft picks to four-year contracts.
The team announced Wednesday that fourth-round linebacker Wade Woodaz, fifth-round safety Kamari Ramsey and sixth-round wide receiver Lewis Bond are now under contract.
Woodaz was previously reported.
Ramsey played two seasons at UCLA and two seasons at USC and totaled 133 tackles, 9.5 sacks, two interceptions, 11 passes defensed and two forced fumbles in 35 career games.
Bond played five seasons for Boston College, totaling 213 catches for 2,385 yards and 11 touchdowns in 46 games.
The Texans waived defensive end Xavier Thomas with an injury designation.
Thomas, a fifth-round pick of the Cardinals in 2024, spent the end of last season on the Texans’ practice squad.
Houston has taken care of some business with a member of its rookie class.
The Texans have signed linebacker Wade Woodaz, Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 Houston reports.
Woodaz was the No. 123 overall pick in the fourth round of this year’s draft. He’s now under contract with a standard four-year deal, which Wilson reports is worth $5.482 million, including a $1.102 million signing bonus.
Woodaz played his college ball at Clemson, appearing in 51 games for the program. He tallied 28.5 tackles for loss and 9.0 sacks in four seasons.
All of the international matchups for the 2026 NFL season were announced on Wednesday morning.
We already knew the first two games on the schedule. The 49ers and Rams will meet in the NFL’s first-ever game in Melbourne, Australia in Week 1 while the Ravens and Cowboys will head to Brazil to play a game in Rio in Week 3.
There will be three straight weeks of games in London kicking off the next week. The Colts will face the Commanders at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Week 4 and the Eagles and Jaguars will square off in the same place the next week. The Jaguars will stay in London to take on the Texans at Wembley Stadium in Week 6.
From there, it will be on to Paris for the first time in league history. The Steelers will battle the Saints at Stade de France in Week 7.
The Bengals-Falcons matchup in Madrid in Week 9 was announced earlier this week and it will be followed by a Patriots-Lions clash at Allianz Arena in Munich the next weekend. The NFL’s return to Mexico City will come in Week 11 when the Vikings and the 49ers square off on Sunday Night Football.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has talked about his desire to see the league play international games each week and the NFL is moving closer to that goal in 2026.
The Texans announced a pair of draft pick signings on Tuesday.
Second-round defensive tackle Kayden McDonald finalized his contract after agreeing to terms with the team over the weekend. They have also signed seventh-round linebacker Aiden Fisher.
Fisher spent two seasons at James Madison and then transferred to Indiana in order to continue playing for head coach Curt Cignetti. He was first-team All-Big Ten in both seasons with the Hoosiers and helped them win the national title last season.
Fisher had 97 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, two interceptions, an interception return for a touchdown, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery last season.
The Texans signed running back Evan Hull on Monday, the team announced.
Hull was among the tryout players the Texans had in their rookie minicamp.
Hull, 25, entered the NFL as a fifth-round pick of the Colts in 2023. He has also played for the Steelers and Saints, rushing for 49 yards on 20 carries and catching two passes for 12 yards in his career.
The team cut tight end Luke Lachey in a corresponding move.
Lachey, a seventh-round draft pick from Iowa in 2025, spent last season on the Texans’ practice squad. He is the son of former NFL offensive tackle Jim Lachey.
When trade rumors swirled about Texans wide receiver Nico Collins ahead of the draft, General Manager Nick Caserio didn’t hesitate to make it clear that the team has no interest in parting ways with the wideout.
Caserio said anyone thinking that a trade could happen “can shove it” because the Texans won’t be making a deal. That sounds like it was music to Collins’s ears because he said this weekend that he does not have any interest in wearing a different uniform.
“I love the Texans,” Collins said, via Aaron Wilson of KPRC. “I got drafted here. It’s somewhere I want to end. I love the city, the people, the community. There’s a lot of great positive vibes coming out of the city of Houston. So, it’s definitely a place I would like to retire.”
While Collins wants to stick around the Texans, the business side of things will always play a role in how a career plays out and Collins has slipped down the list of best-paid wideouts since signing an extension in 2024. That deal could be revisited, but a failure to find common ground could lead to different thoughts about a shared future in Houston.
The Texans have taken care of an important piece of business on Saturday.
Houston and second-round pick Kayden McDonald have agreed to his rookie contract, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
McDonald’s fully guaranteed deal is worth just over $12.9 million.
The No. 36 overall pick of the 2026 draft, McDonald was the last player remaining in the green room in Pittsburgh when he was selected on Day 2.
McDonald was a first-team All-Big Ten selection and the Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year in 2025.
The Texans announced the addition of a dozen undrafted free agents to their 90-man roster on Friday.
The group includes running backs Josh Pitsenberger and Noah Whittington. David Montgomery, Woody Marks, and Jahwar Jordan are the veteran backs in Houston.
Pitsenberger ran 313 times for 1,571 yards and 19 touchdowns at Yale last season. Whittington ran 129 times for 829 yards and six touchdowns with Oregon in 2025.
The Texans also signed Tennessee defensive tackle Dominic Bailey, South Dakota State offensive lineman Sam Hagen, Missouri cornerback Stephen Hall, N.C. State defensive end Sabastian Harsh, Iowa State offensive lineman James Neal III, Colgate wide receiver Treyvhon Saunders, Illinois State wide receiver Daniel Sobkowicz, Syracuse punter Jack Stonehouse, Incarnate Word wide receiver Jalen Walthall, and Stanford cornerback Collin Wright.
