2021 NFL Draft: Houston Texans Draft Picks, Order

Remember when a Houston Texans draft was fun? When you could count on Rick Smith to bring in one awesome player in the first round and then misfire as often as he hit the mark in the following rounds?

The Texans landed Andre Johnson, Mario Williams, Duane Brown, Brian Cushing, Kareem Jackson, J.J. Watt, Whitney Mercilus, DeAndre Hopkins, Jadeveon Clowney, Will Fuller and Deshaun Watson in the first round of past NFL Drafts. Unfortunately, as it stands right now, there’s no first round pick in 2021 to continue that trend.

Last year’s draft was certainly nothing to write home about. Ross Blacklock, Jonathan Greenard, Charlie Heck, John Reid and Isaiah Coulter did very little to help the team’s fate last season. The Texans’ 2019 draft was so bad it may have led to general manager Brian Gaine’s firing, although in comparison to 2020, it was a great class, with Tytus Howard, Max Scharping, and Charles Omenihu all making significant contributions to the franchise over the last two seasons.

The 2021 NFL Draft will commence at 6 p.m. CDT on Thursday, April 29th. That’s just a little over two weeks away. While a lot can happen in that time, here’s where the Texans and general manager Nick Caserio stand with picks. Currently without a first or second round pick, both sent to the Miami Dolphins in the Laremy Tunsil trade, the Texans first shot at grabbing a player comes in Round Three.

Round Pick Overall

3 3 67

4 4 109

5 3 147

5 14 158

6 11 195

6 19 203

6 28 212

7 5 233

This currently gives Nick Caserio and Jack Easterby eight bites at the apple to better the roster for the future. Aside from striking gold with another Justin Reid, it’s hard to imagine the Texans landing any immediate starters when they don’t pick until 66 other players have left the draft pool. Of course, the draft is historically littered with late round picks that turned into NFL superstars. Could Houston get one this year? Maybe..

Houston Texans 2021 Mock Draft Results

Drew Dougherty of houstontexans.com posted a mock draft survey on March 25th with a wide variety of potential future Texans.

Some of these mocks require Houston trading into the first round, presumably by shipping off Deshaun Watson. USA Today has the Texans taking QB Zach Wilson out of BYU. DrafTek has the Texans taking combine/pro day/workout warrior WR Amon-Ra St. Brown out of USC. Overall, the mock survey has three wide receivers, two quarterbacks, three cornerbacks, one tight end, and three offensive linemen coming to Houston.

It’s hard to say just what Houston’s biggest draft need is currently, thanks to a historic level of roster churn this offseason. However, since the defense was the biggest area of need in 2020 and the truckload of incoming free agents didn’t bring very many roster locks with it, we might expect Caserio to go defense early and often.

Granted, if a Deshaun Watson trade does happen prior to/during the draft, things will change dramatically.

What do you think happens? Can the Texans and Watson provide enough clarity for other teams to make a trade before the draft’s first round is over? Will Caserio pull off some other draft day swaps? Will he wait and simply sign ALL the undrafted free agents?

Give us your best guess.