Houston Texans Expected to 'At Least Try' to Trade Into First Round

Could the Texans move into the first round in the 2024 NFL Draft?

NFL Draft Day is here. After a long offseason, teams making moves in free agency to start building out their rosters for the 2024 season and nothing but the draft remaining, the offseason is at the final stage before team workouts and team building for the upcoming season is here.

For the Houston Texans, they've got the opportunity to continue building on an offseason which has been a success. They've added weapons like Stefon Diggs from the Buffalo Bills and Joe Mixon from the Cincinnati Bengals to the offense, building around second-year quarterback C.J. Stroud who emerged as a star a season ago.

While the Texans aren't supposed to make a selection until pick No. 42, it wouldn't come as a surprise if their first pick doesn't come on Thursday during the first round. The Athletic's Dianna Russini reported that she wouldn't "put it past" general manager Nick Caserio to find the Texans' way into the first round.

"The Texans aren't on the clock until the second round, but I wouldn't put it past Nick Caserio to trade into the first round Thursday night," Russini wrote Thursday morning. "I'm expecting Houston to at least try, just based on Caserio's trade history. He traded eight times last year and seven times in 2022. We'll see if he starts calling Thursday."

If Caserio has an offensive lineman he wants to add -- or an electric wide receiver to add to the stacked room -- trading into the first-round makes sense. As Russini alluded to, Caserio is known for trading during the draft. Adding more young, cheap talent around Stroud could be worth it as the team tries to compete on the star quarterback's rookie contract.

With the draft beginning on Thursday, Caserio is going to have to quickly decide weather he's going to sit on his hands and wait to draft until Friday or trade up and get his guy early on.

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