Over the last eight days, your Houston Texans hung with the 10-4 Dallas Cowboys and the 11-3 Kansas City Chiefs all the way until the end of the game. While both contests added L’s to the Texans win-loss record, the players never gave up - and kept these games closer than they had any right to be when the final whistle blew.

However, both games were also marred by head scratching coaching calls that do nothing but add further credence to the Tankathon 2022 theory.

Now, so many folks out there are going to blame this loss on the late game fumble from Davis Mills. But, if it wasn't for Mills the game wouldn't have ever been that close at the end.

Sure, he’s not the next Tom Brady, or even the next Steve McNair, but with better coaching and better surrounding players, he’s more than a 1-12-1 record.

Houston Texans Can Compete, Coaches Choose Not To...

With this level of effort from a ‘fair to middling’ roster, the Tankathon execution clearly falls on the shoulders of the coaching staff. Granted, it’s likely an edict handed down from Caserio, but, yeah... (Doubt it came from Cal McNair as the Texans draft position doesn’t help him level up in the new Fortnite Battle Pass.)

Now, does this mean, since Caserio and co. have cleared out the majority of Bill O’Easterby’s terrible cap spending, and are well on the way to the #1 pick in next year’s draft that 2023 is a new day dawning? Well, the Texans have three games left and the Chicago Bears are two games behind them in the draft race. Once Houston has secured that pick, changes should arise.

But will they?

Houston Texans Salary Cap

According to OverTheCap, the Texans are currently sitting with $1,913,129 in cap space. That number jumps significantly in 2023 to a whopping $47,549,048. Should they off-shore Brandin Cooks, as many believe will happen via off-season trade, that number could jump by as much as $26,610,370 depending on how the trade details are nuanced and if Caserio can move the entire cap hit to Cooks’ new team.

Either way, the Texans have done a good job of tanking, yet again. Hopefully this is the last year we all suffer through this, for a very long time.