The Houston Texans may not have aced the 2023 NFL draft, but they should be proud of the grade for their nine-man class nevertheless.
According to Doug Farrar from the Touchdown Wire, the Texans did well to take Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud with the No. 2 overall pick, but going after Alabama defensive end Will Anderson, and giving up such draft capital to do so, was a sketchy move on the part of general manager Nick Caserio.
Stroud was my QB1, so no argument with getting him with the second overall pick the Texans had. Trading up (and giving up a lot) for Anderson is a suspect move, though Anderson does seem to have everything to transform Houston’s defense as Stroud can do for the offense, and I’m not going to tell DeMeco Ryans what to do with his defensive players. Scruggs seems like a massive overdraft based on his tape, but I love the idea of Tank Dell in Bobby Slowik’s offense. Skowik is from the Kyle Shanahan tree, and Dell seems like a total Shanahan “creative gadget” receiver, so there you go.
The steal of this draft, though, is Xavier Hutchinson in the sixth round. No clue how he lasted this long, but he’s a potential WR1 in the NFL with speed, route awareness, and nuance to get open in contested situations.
Hutchinson has been making an impact throughout some of the other national outlets’ evaluations of the draft specifically for his impact with Iowa State last season. General manager Nick Caserio opined that he fell as far as he did to the sixth round due to bad workouts throughout the pre-draft process.
As long as Anderson is finding ways to get to opposing quarterbacks, or drawing the attention of opposing offensive coordinators, there won’t be anything suspect about his selection.
