Houston Texans include six players in CBS Sports NFL Top 100

With training camp officially less than a month away and the entire football operations side of the building on vacation at NRG Stadium, it’s that time of year when we take a look at the rankings of power of all shapes and sizes. As I mentioned before, doing this is a more relevant and fun exercise when the Texans have actual power ranking worthy entities like all the big players currently on the roster!

To that end, CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco is one of the most respected NFL journalists. He has covered the league for some time, including for many years on the beat for the Jacksonville Jaguars and most recently for CBSSports.com. Prisco annually releases its list of the 100 best players in the NFL at that time.

The 2024 roster was dropped earlier this week, and here’s where some of your favorite Houston Texans landed on the list:

35. DANIELLE HUNTER, OF
38. CJ STROUD, QB
57. LAREMY TUNSIL, LT
77. NICOLE COLLINS, WR
80. DEREK STINGLEY, Jr., CB
99. WILL ANDERSON, Jr., DE

Okay, that’s fun! It’s not just Laremy Tunsil who sneaks onto the list as the only good Texan in football. We have several players here, and they all play premium positions! Here are my thoughts on some details:

Six players on this roster put the Texans in rarefied air
It’s no surprise that the team with the most players on this list is last season’s Super Bowl losers, the San Francisco 49ers. They put together a killer roster and put nine players on the roster, including three in the top ten (3. Trent Williams, LT; 8. Christian McCaffrey, RB; 10, Nick Bose, DE) and their quarterback ( 85. Brock Purdy). Three teams – the Chiefs, Lions and Ravens – have placed seven players in the Top 100. It’s no surprise that the four teams mentioned so far are the four teams that have been to the conference title games last season. Next are the Texans, who, along with the Eagles and Cowboys, have a half-dozen players in the Top 100. For what it’s worth, CJ Stroud’s ranking, 38th, is ahead of Palen Hurts (53rd) and Dak Prescott ( 49th), so I’ll use the QB ranking as a tiebreaker!

Biggest Texans surprise – no Stefon Diggs on the roster!
This is a pretty significant omission, considering Diggs ended up 20th overall on the 2023 roster and 5th among wide receivers. Now he finds himself off the roster, and at the very least, behind the next wide receivers.

4. Tyreek Hill, MIA
7. Justin Jefferson, MIN
13. Ja/Marr Chase, CIN
21. Cede Lamb, DAL
26. Davante Adams, LVG
27. AJ Brown, PHI
39. Amon Ra St. Brown, DET
42. Jaylen Waddle, MIA
45. Brandon Aiyuk, S.F.
66. Puka Nacua, LAR
68. George Pickens, P.I.T.
72. Garrett Wilson, NYJ
77. Nico Collins, HOU
81. Deebo Samuel, SF
82. DeVonta Smith, PHI
84. DJ Moore, CHI
88. Mike Evans, tuberculosis

It’s also worth noting that Diggs didn’t even make honorable mention of Prisco, which included the following wide receivers:

Tee Higgins, CIN
Terry McLaurin, WAS
Calvin Ridley, TEN
Cooper Kupp, L.A.R.
Keenan Allen, CHI
Michael Pittman
Amari Cooper, CLV
DeAmdre Hopkins, TEN

Wow, that makes a total of 25 wide receivers that Prisco rated ahead of Diggs. Someone show Diggs this list, please!

It’s nice to see that this AFC South team doesn’t have any players on the roster…
Indeed, while the Texans are climbing subjective player power rankings like this, only two teams have failed to place a player on this list. Normally, I would say “Wow, these two teams must be the worst teams in the league!”, and in the case of one of these teams, I would be right. These would be Washington’s commanders. However, I was slightly surprised that the Indianapolis Colts, who were four points away from winning the AFC South in 2023, had no players on Prisco’s roster. Now, to be completely clear, they got four honorable mention players (Jonathan Taylor, Michael Pittman, DeForest Buckner, Quentin Nelson), but I think the Colts may have been cheated. Too bad!

The Houston Texan most likely to debut on this list in a year is…
The Texans had no players among the 50 honorable mention players, so it’s hard to say who Prisco considers “close, but definitely there.” I guess the answer would be “no one, yet.” If I had to pick one player to win the Prisco Party Top 100 next season, I’d go with wide receiver Tank Dell, who I predict will lead the Texans in receiving yards this coming season, and whose play is so unique and sparkly, given his small size and other world-changing skills.

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