1.) Houston Texans
The biggest surprise team of the 2023 season was the Houston Texans, who not only made it to the divisional round of the playoffs, but also has the Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Years in C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson. First-year head coach DeMeco Ryans exceeded expectations and showed that he will be a great coach for the foreseeable future for Houston. Finishing in the top 15 in terms of sacks (46), the Texans not only showed that they can play defensive football, but they also have a great future setup with the draft and free agency. When you look at the AFC South, the Jacksonville Jaguars are a wild card team with not a ton of cap space, the Titans are going into a rebuild mode and the Colts still need to show that they can be competitive with Anthony Richardson, who has already had a season-ending injury this early in his career.
The Texans are here to stay and they will be able to build off of last season. Having over $67 million in cap space for free agency, they will have a lot of freedom as to where they can spend money. If the Texans wanted to keep building up their defense, Huff would be a great fit under Ryans. With the Texans’ offensive power, Houston may not need to play from behind which would allow the defense to play complimentary football without having pressure on them. Putting Huff into this defense would make it more dominant than it was this past year.
Aside from Huff, there are plenty of free agents that may explore Houston as a top contender because of how well they played with a young quarterback in Stroud. The Cardinals could very well lose out on Huff to a team like the Texans.