Houston Texans need an offensive lineman in first round of NFL Draft

The Houston Texans might as well get on top of their offices with bullhorns and announce that when they come up on the clock with the 23rd overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, they are taking an offensive lineman.

Whether that selection ends up resulting in Cody Ford, Jonah Williams (highly doubtful), Garrett Bradbury, Dalton Risner, Andre Dillard or another man in the trenches is irrelevant at this point. What does matter is that Houston general manager Brian Gaine needs to have that card turned in with one of the big uglies have their name scrubbed on it.

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Last year, the Houston Texans gave up a whopping, and league-leading, 62 sacks. This despite having one of the better athletes in the world playing quarterback. Deshaun Watson couldn’t escape the beatings, leading to rib injuries. At one point, he had to drive to a game in Jacksonville instead of flying due to the maladies.

Should Watson be forced to go through anything like that again, we should start considering Gaine for football malpractice. Last year, Houston was somewhat limited in its options. This was as a result of not having picks in each of the first two rounds. This year, despite having more than $70 million in cap space of any team in the league at free agency’s outset — and still having the second-most at $41.715 million — Houston decided to largely stand pat up front. The Texans invested in cornerback Bradley Roby and safety Tashaun Gipson. However, instead of trading a late-round pick for guard Kelechi Osemele, or signing guard Rodger Saffold, or paying for left tackle Trent Brown, Houston decided to eschew those options.

With that in mind, Gaine has absolutely no choice but to remake his offensive line with vengeance in the draft. Houston has to find at least two starters, preferably including a tackle and guard. If that doesn’t happen, it’s hard to make a case for the Texans. They are not going to be much better up front in 2019.

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The schedule won’t be helping Houston out, either. This year, the AFC South draws the AFC West. This means that Chris Jones, Melvin Ingram, Joey Bosa, Bradley Chubb and Von Miller are going to be lining up on the opposite side. Again, bring in the help for Watson.

The Texans have a quality team that could make noise in the postseason. Yet all of that will be undone if the front wall isn’t significantly overhauled by the end of the month.