Texans Thursday: Do the Texans just run it back with Stefon Diggs?

What are the other options that either of them have?

What the early offseason really becomes, if you are someone like me without major sources, is a careful reading of the leans of the team’s beat writers. What I mean by this is that Jonathan Alexander initially wrote that Bobby Slowik wasn’t “in jeopardy of losing his job at this point.” Then today wrote “At this point, I don’t really know the odds.” Understand the job of a beat writer is less to have opinions and more to listen to what they are hearing, and you will start to see little tonal shifts in their coverage not as a matter of flip-flopping (curse the political party that turned this into a bad thing) and more a matter of the sources changing their tune.

The one thing I found more interesting in that mailbag column though, something that has been consistent through the end of the season and offseason, is the Stefon Diggs question:

It has been hard to find a Texans beat writer who believes that Diggs will be back wholeheartedly despite the praises his teammates sung for him before tearing his ACL in Week 8. Aaron Wilson noted that Diggs is interested in being back “depending on the price and role in the offense.”

The Texans probably were if not happy, ambivalent about tearing up Diggs’ remaining contract and having him be a free agent this year when they got him. They were probably thinking “if he gets hurt, we’ll have Tank Dell.” Well, what if you didn’t? That’s the world we’re living in now, one where the Texans can’t even guarantee a timetable that gets Houston’s 2024 third-rounder on the field before the end of the season.

Nick Caserio needs to operate not like they have two good receivers ready for next year, but one. I don’t necessarily think it hurt them against the Chiefs enough to cost them that game, but there will be more aggressive coverage units that ask more against man coverage, and the Texans have already proven they aren’t turning those games into feasts for Nico Collins.

So, how do the Texans create the money they need to do this?