B-
Houston Texans
The Texans checked most of the boxes and earned a B-.
by Reheheheheh ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 4 steals
· 2 reaches
Call it a hunch or call it a gamble, but the Texans spent slot 69 on Kaleb Elarms-Orr, a name most had 112 spots down the list.
The Lucas steal is the beam this whole class leans on. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped running back, which is a strange place to end up.
A workmanlike haul that should hold up just fine.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 28 they get a problem off the edge. The biggest hole, addressed.
Dillon Thieneman is a better player than slot 38 suggests; smart patience, rewarded. Useful body for a position without much behind the starter.
A market-rate edge rusher, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Derrick Moore. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
They reached a country mile for Kaleb Elarms-Orr at pick 69, and the board is aghast. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Cole Payton in the Round 4 slot, miles early. A need, and now a little less of one.
Taking Anthony Lucas in pick No. 141 is close to grand larceny; an edge rusher that good had no business lasting this long. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A quiet steal in the 167th pick: Zxavian Harris for less than the market said. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They let TJ Hall come to them and pounced at Round 7, Pick 27. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.