The Houston Texans are expected to go in one of two ways during the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft and both options would strongly benefit C.J. Stroud. One option is that they attempt to bolster their offensive line, a unit that struggled mightily to protect Stroud. The other option is to find another pass-catcher for Stroud, as Stefon Diggs is off to New England and Tank Dell is going to miss most of, if not all of, the season.
With that said, it's not the least bit shocking to continually see the Texans linked to either an offensive lineman or a wide receiver in mock drafts. The team has strong needs at both of those positions, so why not attack those areas in the mocks?
In a recent mock draft, the Texans not only land a wide receiver for Stroud but they take a pretty big measure to do so. The other two mock drafts used for this roundup have the team going in the other direction, which is addressing the o-line. Again, not shocking considering how the o-line consistently got rouged up in Stroud's sophomore season.
Texans continue to follow the trends in 2025 NFL Mock Draft roundup
NFL.com: Josh Conerly Jr., OT (Oregon)
Gennaro Filice of NFL.com went with the first option, which was for the Texans to draft an offensive tackle. In this case, it's Oregon's Josh Conerly Jr. Filice points out that the Texans can give Conerly some time to learn, as they signed Cam Robinson and he can serve in the left tackle role until either Conerly is ready or next season, whichever the team thinks is the best option.
NBC Sports: Josh Conerly Jr., OT (Oregon)
Connor Rogers of NBC Sports also liked the idea of Conerly ending up in Houston. Filice and Rogers both noted that Conerly isn't fully there yet but Rogers said he could be a "potential franchise tackle of the future" and Texans fans would be totally onboard for that playing out.
Grade: A-
CBS Sports: Emeka Egbuka, WR (Ohio State)
Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports went with the second option, which was to have the Texans select a wide receiver with their first-round pick. Not only did Benjamin have the Texans drafting a wide receiver, he had them trading up to do so, swapping first-round picks with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to land Ohio State product (and Stroud's former teammate in college) Emeka Egbuka.
Truthfully, the Texans probably wouldn't need to trade up to land Egbuka here but perhaps the front office gets nervous about how things are playing out and want to make sure Stroud gets reunited with his former college teammate. Egbuka definitely would give the Texans some juice but moving up to draft him might be criticized.
Grade: B
