Texans' Offense Expected to Make One Big Adjustment for 2026 Season

The Houston Texans' offense ranked within the middle of the pack throughout the 2025 season in most important metrics. In some areas, they were below average.

Houston finished as the 13th-best scoring offense and had some of the lowest turnover totals throughout the league. At the same time, they also fell into the pit of being one of the league's bleakest rushing attacks and were bottom-10 in third-down efficiency.

A big goal for the 2026 season–– and a reason for a lot of the work done to the roster this offseason–– will be to see that offensive production turn around in the right direction.

And in doing so, there's bound to be one major adjustment to how the Texans will be approaching their offense this year. More specifically, there's bound to be more reliance on tight ends, and 12, 13 personnel sets.

Expect Steeper Tight End Usage in Texans' Offense

Jun 9, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Texans tight end Brevin Jordan arrives for the team’s minicamp at Houston Methodist Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Last season, the Texans were among one of the lowest teams in the league when it came to utilizing 12 and 13 personnel, which comes a bit surprising when noting how the use of heavier tight end packages became more frequent across the NFL last season.

According to SumerSports, Houston finished the 2025 season ranking 31st in the NFL for 12 personnel usage (5.84%), and were 25th in 13 personnel (1.47%). Both were stark differences from what the league average came out to, which stood at 22.3% and 5.34%, respectively.

But the Texans have alreay given the not-so-subtle hint that they'll be taking a different direction when it comes to their offensive attack in 2026.

For one, the Texans focused heavily on bolstering their tight end position throughout moves from this offseason.

They did so by signing a veteran, blocking-focused tight end in Foster Moreau in free agency, and also spent a second-round pick on tight end Marlin Klein, adding onto their existing room held down by Dalton Schultz, Cade Stover, and Brevin Jordan.

Those new pieces in the mix will help give the Texans further confidence that those 12th and 13th personnel groupings will be more effective than last year, given that this tight end room wasn't nearly as deep (or as healthy) as it is now.

Nick Caley Hinted at Texans Using More Tight End-Heavy Sets

Jul 23, 2025; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley during training camp at Houston Methodist Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

But even outside of the roster moves done, Texans second-year offensive coordinator Nick Caley––who has background as the LA Rams' tight ends coach before coming to Houston–– has alluded to Houston’s intention to spend more time in those heavier sets to be as versatile as they can offensively.

Between both his speciality of coaching the position and the attention brought to the position this offseason, you can tell he's excited to enact those changes.

“I am a little bit biased there because of my background with tight ends, but you remember it is important,” Caley said at the Texans' OTAs. “I think you always want to be multiple. Last year we got thinned out pretty early with [Brevin Jordan] prior to us ever getting to the season. Cade goes down... for call it two-thirds of the season, and we’re in the jumbo world a lot."

“We want to be multiple. We want to have balance, 11, 12s, 13s, 20, etcetera, and I think that’s always good to be able to do those things. So, that’s important. We’ve got a really good group of receivers. We’ve got a really good group of backs. We’ve got a really good group at tight end now, too, and we’re healthy. So, it’s been a lot of fun just trying to mix those groupings here and evolve that.”

That extra dynamic ability in utilizing tight ends will only help the this Texans offense as a whole.

In the run game, it allows for better blocking efficiency with more bodies that can line up in-line, and can create better gaps for David Montgomery, and even Woody Marks, to take advantage of.

Passing-wise, those same tight ends have solid upside as receiving weapons that can help offer C.J. Stroud more optionality, but also be utilized as an extra asset for this offensive line to take their necessary strides forward.

Bolstering the tight end spot was going to be key for how the Texans capitalized on this offseason, and that's exactly what they've done throughout the past few months.

Now it allows Caley to dig into his bag of tricks for what he was hired for last year, and help take this attack to the next level. Time will tell if it pans out as expected.

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