One Free Agent Texans Must Pivot to After Losing Out on Cade Mays

The Houston Texans saw a tough blow to their free agency aspirations in the first couple of hours of the legal tampering window opening across the league, seeing a highly-rumored target, Cade Mays of the Carolina Panthers take his talents to the Detroit Lions.

For Mays, it's a three-year, $25 million deal with $14 million guaranteed with the Lions, accoring to KPRC2's Aaron Wilson, giving Detroit their new starting center for the foreseeable future.

Cade Mays to #Lions three years, $25M, 14M fully guaranteed per league sources.
Represented by Octagon Sports @Octagon
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) March 9, 2026

As for other teams around the NFL in search of help at the center position, particularly the Texans, it now forces them to turn elsewhere to try and address those needs with a veteran on the open market.

When surveying the landscape of the NFL's free agent center market, there's already a lot of big names who have been picked up on new deals.

Mays joins other centers to land new contracts like Tyler Biadasz with the LA Chargers, Connor McGovern's payday with the Buffalo Bills, and even Tyler Linderbaum's new deal with the Las Vegas Raiders to really slim down the available options on the market for the Texans to pursue.

However, there's one remaining option who started the majority of last season that sticks out as a potential target for the Texans to go after in order to patch up that center depth––that's Las Vegas Raiders center Jordan Meredith.

Could Jordan Meredith Make Sense for the Texans?

A name like Jordan Meredith may not jump off the page as a must-get signing for the Texans. The former undrafted free agent was in the middle of one of the league's worst offensive lines throughout last season, who's now just gotten replaced by the team he was previously signed to for four years.

Last season, Meredith was graded the 32nd-best center among 40 eligible names in the NFL via PFF (57.7) and had a bottom-three pass-blocking grade at the position. On paper, he's not quite the upgrade fans were hoping for entering free agency.

Aug 23, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Las Vegas Raiders guard Jordan Meredith (61) against the Arizona Cardinals during a preseason NFL game at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

But, the two factors of Meredith's game that stands out compared to the rest of the market is both his level of experience, as well as his health.

Meredith did end last year with a season-ending ankle injury that slotted him onto injured reserve for the second half of his 2025 campaign, which is why he only started 11 games. In his past three years with the Raiders, though, he's started 20 games.

Compared to a couple of the other lingering center veterans hitting free agency who could be eyeing a starting opportunity elsewhere––Lloyd Cushenberry and Ethan Pocic––each of them will be coming off an Achilles tear that could limit their overall availability headed into next season, and thus makes an investment in either much riskier.

Meredith doesn't have that same risk. And on a team-friendly, short-term contract, the Texans can dig the former Raiders center out of the bargain bin to, at the very least, compete with Jake Andrews as the starting center for 2026, even if he's not filling in on the interior come Week One.

The Texans may also feel it's best to draft a center in this year's class with a day-two pick for an injection of youth and better potential than what the free-agent market has to offer. In reality, that may be the most likely (and preferable) route for Houston to go for this group to really find a step forward on the interior from 2025.

But if Nick Caserio and Co. were dead set on adding a veteran contributor to compete for that center spot in free agency, it's going to be hard to find many names that fit the bill better than Meredith at this point in the juncture.

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