2024 NFL Draft Combine: Four Things for Houston Texans Fans to Watch For

In the tapestry of the 2024 NFL offseason, one of the most important offseasons in the Houston Texans’ franchise history, the road to the NFL Draft unofficially gets underway with the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama in mid-January. However, the crown jewel on the road to the draft in April is really this week’s NFL Combine in Indianapolis.

The Combine, of course, is the annual gathering whose ostensible purpose is to allow the 32 teams the chance to hyper examine several of the top college prospects in this spring’s draft, both via interview and via a series of inane, position specific drills. The real, largely unspoken of purpose of the combine is to provide a quasi-summit for all 32 front offices to talk, tamper, and lay the ground work for trades and for free agency in a few weeks.

To that end, both Texans GM Nick Caserio and head coach DeMeco Ryans are in Indy this week for the festivities. The spotlight isn’t shining nearly as brightly on the Texans’ draft maneuvers this year as in the previous two years. Picking 23rd overall and having your franchise QB in hand, as opposed to having the second overall pick and Davis Mills as your QB, will create that effect.

That said, there are still plenty of reasons for Texans fans to keep an eye on things in Indianapolis and the news wire this week, all combine-related. Here are four of them:

Ryans and Caserio WILL meet with the media
Other than a few Caserio media stops at the Super Bowl, including one on my show on SportsRadio 610, we haven’t really heard from either Caserio or Ryans since just after the season ended in Baltimore. That will change this week, as head coaches and general managers from all 32 teams (at least those in attendance in Indy) will have a 15-minute session with national media. Ryans does his session at noon on Tuesday, and Caserio goes at noon on Wednesday. I would imagine the buzz around both sessions will be a 180 degree turn from the “rebuilding” questions of the last couple seasons, as the Texans are, to some degree, still basking in the afterglow of their pleasantly surprising 2023 season.

Could we see some free agency deals go down?
It cannot be overstated just how much non draft business is going to be discussed this week in Indianapolis, at the combine itself, in back rooms at Lucas Oil Stadium, and over expensive steaks and shrimp cocktail at St. Elmo’s Steakhouse. Hundreds of agents and most of the prominent decision makers are all in one spot. Back channel tampering will be rampant, so we will hear plenty of rumors about teams “possibly” (read; definitely) having interest in certain free agents from other teams. Above board, we may see movement on teams signing their own free agents. For the Texans, the one to keep an eye on will be tight end Dalton Schultz, who seems to be the one Texans free agent most prominently linked to staying in Houston in 2024 and beyond.

College players and news to watch out for
For the average Texans fan, this Combine probably doesn’t carry as much prospect-centric intrigue as the last couple off-seasons, since the team is improved and the Texans’ top pick is in the early 20’s overall. That said, if some of you are interested, here is the schedule of which positions work out on which days, all of which can be viewed on the NFL Network:

Thursday, February 29th, 3pm ET – Defensive Linemen, Linebackers
Friday, March 1st, 3pm ET – Defensive Backs, Tight Ends
Saturday, March 2nd, 1pm ET – Quarterbacks, Wide Receivers, Running Backs
Sunday, March 3rd, 1pm ET – Offensive Linemen

If you’re looking for specific names to track, use Drew Dougherty’s mock draft tracker as a way to cobble together a list of names. These are the names that the prominent mock drafts have tied to the Texans with the 23rd overall pick:

CHOP ROBINSON, DE, Penn State
TROY FAUTANU, OL, Washington
LAIATU LATU, DE, UCLA
JER’ZHAN NEWTON, DT, Illinois
BRIAN THOMAS, WR, LSU
MICHAEL HALL, DT, Ohio State
LEONARD TAYLOR, DT, Miami
BRALEN TRICE, DE, Washington
COOPER DeJEAN, CB, Iowa
TALIESE FUAGA, OL, Oregon State
PATRICK PAUL, OT, Houston
KINGSLEY SUAMATAIA, OL, BYU

So there you go, Texan fans. There are some names.

Hey, it’s still fun to watch quarterbacks throw, right?
It sure is! Even with C.J. Stroud already in the fold, it’s fun to watch intelligent football people gush over throws against air. Now, even with the degree of difficulty in looking good being fairly low, there will be at least a couple top rated signal callers who will forego throwing in Indy so they can throw in the cozy confines of their own Pro Day at their college campus. Bryce Young did that last year. Be proud, though, Texan fans, for our hero, C.J. Stroud, being the ultimate competitor, threw caution to the wind and decided to throw at last season’s combine (ironically, AGAINST wind and that’s it), so no one can question the ballsiness of your QB! I would suspect we will know which quarterbacks are definitively participating by mid week.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.