While the Houston Texans have made a considerable number of offensive changes throughout the past few months of this offseason, there's one player in the mix still on board from their most recent campaign who could be primed for a second-year breakout as a result of this group's newest adjustments.
Pro Football Focus' Ryan Smith recently outlined a short list of ten second-year players who could be poised for a breakout in 2025, where two tackles selected in last year's draft were highlighted: one of those being Texans' second-rounder Blake Fisher.
"Fisher was a second-round pick (59th overall) who struggled in his rookie season (44.7) but enters Year 2 as a clear starting offensive tackle option," Smith wrote. "Offensive line is a position of concern for the Texans following their trade of Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil to Washington, so it’s important that Fisher develops into a solid starter. Fisher was a consistent player in college at Notre Dame, grading out at 72.9 in 2022 and 71.8 in 2023 and playing 1,584 snaps over that span."
Even without having the consistency in check early as a rookie last season, there's a lot of upside for Fisher's year two campaign when looking at the type of opportunity he'll have on the table.
With the Texans enacting major turnover on the offensive line, especially at the tackle position, it'll be a spot that should have a decent amount of competition, with new names like Cam Robinson, Trent Brown, and Aireontae Ersery all coming aboard.
The vast changes, while they could take a few weeks to sort out and mesh together chemistry, should make for a bit better results than C.J. Stroud being the NFL's second-most sacked quarterback, but it remains to be seen how the five-man unit exactly shakes out.
However, if Fisher can put the pieces together early in camp and preseason to carve out an early role on this Texans line, the second-round pick could finally be in line to stabilize his footing as a quality NFL tackle.
Houston Texans Possess One of NFL’s Top 5 Position Groups
There's one spot on the Houston Texans roster that may stand out a bit more than the rest when looking ahead to next season.
Pro Football Focus' Zoltan Buday recently broke down his picks for the NFL's top ten safety duos entering the 2025 season, where the Texans stood out as a bit of an anomaly: not only were they ranked within the top five, but they also were the only team on the list to have a trio–– C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Jalen Pitre, and Jimmie Ward.
While not quite at the top of the totem pole, those honors go to the Detroit Lions' dominant duo of Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph, the placement among the league's best does show the Texans' dynamic group of players in the back-end of their already strong defense.
The Texans' safety group playing up to their ceiling banks on a few things. Can Gardner-Johnson retain his high-level play from his Super Bowl season in Philadelphia? Is Ward able to bounce-back to 100% following his season-ending foot injury from last year? Could Pitre take that next step in his development during year four?
If this Texans safety group can pair with an existing high-end corner group for an even better season than what they saw in 2024, it could be a dangerous year for opposing receivers.
