Texans Land Impressive Haul in Dane Brugler 7-Round NFL Mock Draft

There is just over a week until the NFL draft and the Houston Texans are in a great position to add pieces to their young core, especially with two pair of first-round picks.

Overall, the Texans own 12 picks in the draft. Which, for a rebuilding team, is a great haul to have. What they do with those picks is of course still yet to be seen, but Dane Brugler's latest seven-round mock draft for The Athletic tackled all 12 Texans' picks.

With the increasing likelihood that Alabama's Bryce Young goes first overall the question then becomes how much do the Texans like C.J. Stroud or any of the other top quarterback prospects.

In Brugler's mock, they go the safe route and land Stroud, at least for now. He acknowledges that there is uncertainty around how Houston handles the second overall pick.

Drafting Stroud, though, would not be a bad consolation to missing on Young. Stroud, in his two seasons starting at Ohio State, threw for 8,123 yards with 85 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions while completing 69.3 percent of his passes.

At No. 12 overall they could go several directions, with the most popular mock picks being a receiver for their new quarterback or bolstering the defense. Here, the Texans do the latter and take EDGE Myles Murphy out of Clemson.

Simply put, the Texans were bad on defense last season. They allowed opponents to score 24.7 points per game, good for 27th in the NFL, on 379.5 yards of total offense.

Murphy, while not an immediate fix, recorded 116 total tackles with 36 tackles for loss and 18.5 sacks in his Clemson career and would join a defense featuring budding stars in cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. and safety Jalen Pitre.

After passing on a receiver at No. 12 overall the Texans land one of the best prospects with their second-round pick in TCU's Quentin Johnston at No. 33.

Johnston was an integral part of TCU's offense in 2022, recording 60 catches for 1,069 yards and eight touchdowns. Pairing him with Stroud in an offense that also added Dalton Schultz and Robert Woods this offseason would allow both to thrive early in their careers.

Their first third-round pick sees them go back to the defensive front, taking defensive tackle Zacch Pickens out of South Carolina at No. 65. Pickens was a force for South Carolina in 2022, recording 42 total tackles with four tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks.

At No. 73 overall, and their second third-round pick, the Texans select Tulane running back Tyjae Spears to complement Dameon Pierce in the backfield. Spears ran for 1,581 yards and 19 touchdowns as a senior, with his 4.47 40-yard dash time adding a speed element to the Texans' offense.

With five picks down in the first two days of the draft, the Texans boast a whopping seven picks on the last day of the draft. Some of those picks could end up being traded, but for now, they belong to Houston.

Of those seven Day 3 picks, Brugler only has the Texans adding three more offensive players.

Those three picks are Clemson tight end Davis Allen at No. 104 overall in the fourth round, USC offensive lineman Andrew Vorhees at No. 188 overall in the sixth round, and Michigan offensive lineman Olo Oluwatimi at No. 230 overall in the seventh round.

The other four picks were used on the defense with the Texans selecting Oregon State cornerback Rejzohn Wright, Indiana linebacker Cam Jones, LSU defensive tackle Jaquelin Roy, and Houston safety Gervarrius Owens at No. 161, 201. 203 and 259 overall respectively.

There are several questions left to be answered before the Texans even pick at No. 2 overall, let alone the question of who they will draft with the second overall pick.

If this is how the board falls, though, it is hard to walk away from a haul this impressive unhappy if you're Houston.

You can find Connor Zimmerlee on Twitter @Connorjz98

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