Draft Tracker 2025

[Sweech]

I don't draft for need and just take bpa is a a fallacy all GMs tell their fans. GMs do both. If there's a damn good player that fits a need at their spot, they'll pull the trigger, and if not they'll pull the trigger on best value. Every smart GM does both, I don't know why fans get so hung up on this every year, and I don't know why GMs get so defensive about it either.

They're also just far more organized and can view the draft as more of a matrix than a large chunk of NFL fans.

So many fans view the draft not just from a need fashion but from a binary need fashion. As in you use your first pick to take whatever player would theoretically address your biggest need, your second pick to address your second biggest need, your third pick to address your third biggest need.

We all saw it the second they picked Jayden Higgins instead of an interior o-lineman.

 

[Errant Hothy]

I think Davis Mills is a solid back up and though I know little to nothing about Graham Mertz I doubt he is Jello. Competition will be good in my opinion. Say what you will about both, Other teams have worse Qb situations.

Mills is a good backup, but he's about to be a) an expensive backup or b) get the chance to compete somewhere for the QB1 job. Either way he'll likely be too expensive to keep resign after this season.

Also need camp bodies

 

[OptimisticTexan]

Just posted my draft recap - https://www.texanstalk.com/threads/beerlover-final-2025-texan-mock-draft.117747/page-2#post-3491162

When I say impatient, I mean they don’t let the board come to them. Unless there’s viable intel. Would have liked to keep all 2026 draft capital & work under this years picks, especially using 6ths to move up one or two slots, when you really want player with equal grade.

Whose board? We have no idea as to how the Texans trust stacked their big board.

Site boards are not the Texans board, so it’s hard to use their boards as an exact science…..it’s a guess, just like our personal ideas.

I feel like I was correct in assessing that the Texans had thought Donovan Jackson was falling right into their hands. By almost 90+% of boards, the Vikings were never going to take Jackson. Most I saw had the Vikings taking SS- Nick Emmanwori if he was still on the board.

It would be interesting to try and guess what the Texans would’ve done had they selected Jackson at 25. Do they trade up for WR- Higgins and if so, how far up do they trade?

 

[Lucky]

Mills is a good backup, but he's about to be a) an expensive backup or b) get the chance to compete somewhere for the QB1 job.

We tend to exaggerate the value of our players. Mills isn't getting much more than the $5 million he's getting now. Mac Jones, Cooper Rush, and Jimmy G. are getting about the same or less. But if Nick wants to spend a late 6th on a throwaway pick, no big deal. Anyone at that point was a longshot to make the team.

 

[Errant Hothy]

We tend to exaggerate the value of our players. Mills isn't getting much more than the $5 million he's getting now. Mac Jones, Cooper Rush, and Jimmy G. are getting about the same or less. But if Nick wants to spend a late 6th on a throwaway pick, no big deal. Anyone at that point was a longshot to make the team.

Sure, but a cheaper backup would generate some extra cap space. I know it wouldn't be much but with CJ and WAJ coming due any amount would be helpful.

 

[Lucky]

Sure, but a cheaper backup would generate some extra cap space.

Cheaper than $5 million? I don't think I would trust a backup QB cheaper than that on a contender. I'm not against moving on from Davis Mills. But I promise you, Mertz is not that guy.

 

[TexansBull]

Just posted my draft recap - https://www.texanstalk.com/threads/beerlover-final-2025-texan-mock-draft.117747/page-2#post-3491162

When I say impatient, I mean they don’t let the board come to them. Unless there’s viable intel. Would have liked to keep all 2026 draft capital & work under this years picks, especially using 6ths to move up one or two slots, when you really want player with equal grade.

What’s interesting to me in this draft is Caserio wanted to trade up to get the player he wanted. He couldn’t find a deal. Teams probably wanted extra grease and Caserio wouldn’t overpay. So you had a situation where Caserio read the room, knew the teams target was likely to get picked prior to their selection, and it happened. We are talking about two potential players, Golden and Conerly picked right before their selection Texans picked.

So being patient with their pick didn’t work. Luckily there was a deal that probably was already agreed to that the Texans traded down. Higgins. And then traded up to get Ersery.

To me Caserio has created a fluid draft strategy because he always has draft capital stocked away for a rainy day. He isn’t greedy and he isn’t going to overpay. And he will get a player on his board to fill the a position he may be targeting.

We won’t know the draft results for a couple of years. Look how long it took to grade Nico’s draft. Same with Stingley.

 

[Lucky]

Teams probably wanted extra grease and Caserio wouldn’t overpay.

I think teams just wanted to make their pick and take a player they wanted. There were no deals from the Browns/Jags deal at 1.2 until the Texans moved down with the Giants at 1.25. Nick has never shied away from an overpay. It's just no one wanted to play ball with Nick.

 

[Lucky]

Golden and Conerly picked right before their selection Texans picked.

Golden (1.23) and Donovan Jackson (1.24).

 

[calishung7717]

Whose board? We have no idea as to how the Texans trust stacked their big board.

Site boards are not the Texans board, so it’s hard to use their boards as an exact science…..it’s a guess, just like our personal ideas.

I feel like I was correct in assessing that the Texans had thought Donovan Jackson was falling right into their hands. By almost 90+% of boards, the Vikings were never going to take Jackson. Most I saw had the Vikings taking SS- Nick Emmanwori if he was still on the board.

It would be interesting to try and guess what the Texans would’ve done had they selected Jackson at 25. Do they trade up for WR- Higgins and if so, how far up do they trade?

Would be fascinating to know if that was something they had thought about. Jackson at 25 and then trade up for Higgins. I wouldn't have hated it at all.

 

[Sweech]

All of the trade charts had the Texans winning that trade in value. Not that Nick cares about that as he's shown with the Nico trade, Marks trade, and so on. I wouldn't have moved down to 46 either. Too many guys I loved at the start of round 2 including Higgins.

Not just that but I look at what it did to the Rams draft class and I gotta say I prefer the trade with Buffalo over the one with Atlanta.

In fact it’s a fun thought experiment.

Comparing the Rams draft class to the Texans to see if making that trade was better. For me I prefer the Texans class and it’s not particularly close.

Want more interior o-line? I look at the Detroit Lions draft class and once again if I’m comparing the two I’d rather have the Texans draft class than the one the Lions ended up with.

 

[Speedy]

I think Davis Mills is a solid back up and though I know little to nothing about Graham Mertz I doubt he is Jello. Competition will be good in my opinion. Say what you will about both, Other teams have worse Qb situations.

Solid if he only has to fill in for a game, maybe two, but if they have to depend on him for any longer than that, the Texans won’t win many games.

I know nothing about Mertz so I can’t speak to that. Look forward to seeing if there is indeed a competition for QB2.

 

[TxnsJuggernaut1]

If you are truly honest with yourself, you have to admit that the problems with the Oline have been a direct failure of the draft.

The offensive linemen have to coached do they not? Is it a matter of a failure to spot talented offensive linemen or is it a matter of poor coaching? Maybe it's a combination of the two. Of coarse there is a good chance that Nick Caserio doesn't evaluate offensive linemen very well. Outside of that our other additions to the team have for the most part been good in my opinion.

 

[Lucky]

If you are truly honest with yourself, you have to admit that the problems with the Oline have been a direct failure of the draft.

Maybe you're right. We'll see if Ersery can change the narrative on Nick and the O-line, or if he proves that he can't hack it. Just like some can't identify QBs (Blake Bortles, Matt Corral, Stetson Bennett).

 

[JB]

Maybe you're right. We'll see if Ersery can change the narrative on Nick and the O-line, or if he proves that he can't hack it. Just like some can't identify QBs (Blake Bortles, Matt Corral, Stetson Bennett).

I see what you did there!

 

[leebigeztx]

The offensive linemen have to coached do they not? Is it a matter of a failure to spot talented offensive linemen or is it a matter of poor coaching? Maybe it's a combination of the two. Of coarse there is a good chance that Nick Caserio doesn't evaluate offensive linemen very well. Outside of that our other additions to the team have for the most part been good in my opinion.

I remember how Myers and Bown looked in their 1st couple of yrs st

 

[CloakNNNdagger]

Cheaper than $5 million? I don't think I would trust a backup QB cheaper than that on a contender. I'm not against moving on from Davis Mills. But I promise you, Mertz is not that guy.

I would not want Mertz as a backup just based on his injury history. In 2023, his season was cut short with a fractured collar bone. His first game back in 2024, he suffered a concussion that took him out of 2 games. Then in Oct, he suffered his left non-contact ACL.