What Will the Texans Do With Their Offensive Line? A Deep Dive into Houston’s 2025 OL Strategy

One of the biggest questions heading into the 2025 NFL Draft is what the Houston Texans plan to do with their offensive line. The team has been aggressive this offseason, particularly on offense — firing offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, trading away Laremy Tunsil and Kenyon Green, and cutting veteran guard Shaq Mason. But while they've made multiple moves, the blueprint for the offensive line still feels incomplete.

So, what’s the plan? Is this front office content with what they have, or are they gearing up to make another significant investment in the trenches through the draft?

To get a clearer picture, we’ll walk through this question in stages:

Free agency recap
Current roster breakdown using position-specific snap counts
Draft prospect evaluation by experience and projection
Putting the pieces together — and where I think the Texans are headed

Stage 1: A Telling Offseason — Aggressive Moves and a New Direction

The Texans wasted no time reshaping their OL after falling to the Chiefs in the Divisional Round. Here are the biggest moves they’ve made since:

Fired OC Bobby Slowik
Traded LT Laremy Tunsil
Traded former 1st-round G Kenyon Green
Cut RG Shaq Mason
Signed veterans Trent Brown (T) Cam Robinson (T), Ed Ingram (G), & Laken Tomlinson (G)

While none of the new additions are long-term building blocks, they’re experienced players who bring toughness, leadership, and positional flexibility. Some might see this as patchwork, but I believe it’s strategic. These veterans were likely signed with the intention of holding down the fort while the team identifies specific draft targets that can step in as long-term solutions — especially on the interior.

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Stage 2: Evaluating the Current OL Room — By the Numbers

Rather than guess based on position labels, let’s look at where each lineman on the current Texans roster has actually played, using career snap counts by position.

Player	LT	LG	C	RG	RT	Total Snaps
Laken Tomlinson	0	10,583	0	65	0	10,648
Tytus Howard	245	1,569	0	3	2,960	4,777
Trent Brown	3,097	0	0	0	3,288	6,385
Cam Robinson	6,317	2	0	0	0	6,319
Juice Scruggs	0	784	568	126	0	1,478
Jarrett Patterson	0	10	1,142	0	0	1,152
Ed Ingram	0	0	0	2,763	0	2,763
Blake Fisher	44	0	0	0	432	476

From this, we can infer:

The tackle spots are solidified for 2025 between Robinson, Brown, Howard & Fisher.
The interior is unsettled. Tomlinson is aging, Ingram has been inconsistent, and Scruggs and Patterson are still developing.
Howard’s versatility remains a wild card — he could start at either RT or LG depending on what happens in the draft.

Candidates on the Bubble

Several under-the-radar players could still factor into the final 53 or practice squad plans:

Ladarius Henderson: Drafted in 2024 but spent the year on reserve/NFI with a foot injury. Has college experience at both guard and tackle.
Nick Broeker, Jerome Carvin, Jaylon Thomas, Zach Thomas, Tremayne Anchrum: All bring IOL depth and will be battling to earn backup roles this summer.

Step 2: Evaluating Draft-Eligible Offensive Linemen

One of the key clues in predicting how the Texans might use their picks on the offensive line lies in looking at what general manager Nick Caserio has said — and what the film (and snap counts) show.

Caserio recently made it clear that asking players to switch positions from college to the pros is risky and hard to evaluate. Combine that with his comments that it will be hard for players to make this team — and the reality that DeMeco Ryans expects Round 1 picks to be day-one starters — and you get a strong indicator of what they’re likely to prioritize: proven Power 5 guards who have consistently played on the interior.

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To get a clearer view, I compiled the full college snap counts by position for the top draft-eligible OL targets linked to the Texans:

📊 Full OL Draft Prospect Snap Table

Player	LT	LG	C	RG	RT	ITE
Tyler Booker	77	1763	0	167	0	0
Donovan Jackson	529	1963	0	61	9	9
Tate Ratledge	0	4	0	2072	0	0
Willie Lampkin	0	1712	937	1473	0	0
Jared Wilson	0	10	921	83	0	0
Josh Simmons	1130	0	0	0	800	0
Kelvin Banks Jr.	2774	0	0	0	0	2
Josh Conerly Jr.	1881	3	0	6	2	86
Grey Zabel (NDSU)	974	453	17	222	1064	42
Marcus Mbow	0	13	0	668	1167	11
Jonah Savaiinaea	345	0	0	985	1057	29
Ozzy Trapilo	646	101	0	67	1484	50

Plug-and-Play Guards with Power 5 Production

These are the guys who played primarily — or nearly exclusively — on the interior at major programs. These are the best bets to compete for a starting guard job right away.

Donovan Jackson (Ohio State): 1,963 snaps at LG, with starting-level experience and some exposure at LT and RG.
Tyler Booker (Alabama): 1,763 at LG with 167 at RG. He's arguably the cleanest projection to LG in this class.
Tate Ratledge (Georgia): 2,077 career snaps at RG. Not a left-side player, but a proven SEC mauler.
Willie Lampkin (UNC): Swiss army knife with over 4,000 total snaps across LG, C, and RG. Projects as a top-tier depth piece, potentially starter-caliber by mid-season.

Interior Depth / Developmental IOL

These players have interior versatility but likely need development or project more as backup depth in 2024.

Jared Wilson (Georgia): Almost exclusively a center (921 snaps) with a handful at guard. Could compete for a backup C role.
Lampkin could also land here depending on how fast he develops.

True Tackles / Projection Risks

These are the tackle-only prospects with almost no interior experience. While it’s not uncommon for college tackles to kick inside to guard in the NFL, especially early in their careers, I don’t believe that’s the direction the Texans will go in this draft — particularly in the first round.

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Nick Caserio’s recent comments about the challenges of evaluating players when projecting them to new positions — especially from outside to inside — suggest that Houston wants to minimize that type of risk. And given how urgent the Texans' needs are up front, they’re more likely to prioritize plug-and-play guards who don’t require a learning curve.

That’s why, even with these guys’ talent and upside, I’m skeptical taking them with a 1st round pick:

Josh Simmons (Ohio State): 1,130 career snaps at LT and 800 at RT. Zero interior experience.
Kelvin Banks Jr. (Texas): An elite LT prospect with 2,774 snaps — all at left tackle.
Josh Conerly Jr. (Oregon): 1,881 snaps at LT and 86 in-line tight end reps. Just 6 snaps total at guard positions across three seasons.

Step 4: Final Projection and Takeaway

After going through each angle — free agency moves, snap counts, and Nick Caserio’s own words — my belief is this:

If the Texans draft an offensive lineman in the first or second round, it will be a plug-and-play starting left guard. And based on everything we’ve looked at, the most likely target is Tyler Booker.

Booker played exclusively at left guard for Alabama and brings the kind of physicality and SEC-tested resume the Texans covet. If Booker is gone, Donovan Jackson would be the fallback option. Jackson played over 1,900 snaps at LG at Ohio State, with some added versatility sprinkled in. Houston could potentially trade back a handful of spots and still land Jackson, making him a high-floor option with scheme and positional fit.

I do not believe the Texans will use a top-30 pick on one of the tackle prospects (like Kelvin Banks Jr., Josh Conerly Jr., or Josh Simmons) who are projected to move to guard in the NFL. Caserio explicitly discussed how risky it is to evaluate players at a position they haven’t played — and the team’s aggressive offseason moves signal a clear desire to minimize those risks and solidify the OL now, not gamble on long-term projections.

That said, if they go for a tackle/guard hybrid later in the draft — someone who could start at guard in 2024 and develop into a long-term tackle option — it would come from the second tier of versatile prospects like:

Marcus Mbow (Purdue)
Jonah Savaiinaea (Arizona)
Ozzy Trapilo (Boston College) - is training with Dante Scarnecchia

Those players bring some positional flexibility and would be strong depth adds with future upside, but again, not likely to be the day-one answer.

Projected Post-Draft OL Depth Chart

Here’s how I currently see the Texans offensive line shaking out after the draft if they follow the direction I’ve outlined:

Left Tackle

1st String: Cam Robinson
2nd String: Trent Brown

Left Guard

1st String: Tyler Booker (or Donovan Jackson if Booker is off the board)
2nd String: Laken Tomlinson

Center

1st String: Jarrett Patterson
2nd String: Juice Scruggs / Willie Lampkin / Jared Wilson

Right Guard

1st String: Juice Scruggs
2nd String: Ed Ingram / Willie Lampkin / Jared Wilson / Marcus Mbow / Jonah Savaiinaea

Right Tackle

1st String: Tytus Howard
2nd String: Blake Fisher

Closing Thought

This is just my interpretation based on what the Texans have done, what they’ve said, and how the draft board lines up. It’s possible things don’t play out this cleanly — but I strongly believe the Texans are targeting a proven, Power 5, day-one starter at guard, and will shape the rest of the offensive line around that move. Booker and Jackson fit that mold better than anyone else in this class.