Houston pulled off two draft-day deals — one before the draft and one during.
HOUSTON — The Houston Texans ended up without a first-round pick this year. Just before they were to pick in the opening round at No. 25, the team announced they were trading the pick to the New York Giants for three picks — two this year and one next year.
For dealing away their first-round pick, Houston gets the 34th pick (second round) and the 99th pick (third round) this year and a 2026 third-round pick from the Giants.
After the draft was over. GM Nick Caserio explained why the team made the move.
“We went into today I would say honestly, we had three different scenarios: trade up, stay at 25 and pick, trade back,” he said. “I mean, (Head Coach) DeMeco (Ryans) and I have been talking about basically for two, three days about some different scenarios, possibilities. I don’t want to say we talked to the whole league, but probably talked to the whole league on every different level. There are some players we identified; some were out of reach. Some — in the end, trades are a byproduct of teams willing to make decision to move or not. We felt at 25, that was the best thing for us. Puts us in a pretty good spot, two twos (second round), three threes (third round), picked up another three (third round) next year. We’ll deal with tomorrow. We think we’re going to get some pretty good football players tomorrow. We felt like the value to draft was basically in the middle, so try to take advantage of our opportunities here tomorrow.”
You can see Caserio’s full news conference after the first round of the draft below.
It was the second trade of the day for the Texans. Earlier, Houston pulled off a deal with Cleveland, sending a fifth-round pick this year – the 166th overall – and a fifth-round pick in the 2027 draft to the Browns.
In exchange, Houston got two sixth-round picks (179 and 216 overall) and one seventh-round pick (255 overall)
So as it stands as of 10 p.m. Thursday, here are the Texans picks:
- Second round: 34rd overall
- Second round: 58th overall
- Third round: 79th overall, 89th overall and 99th overall
- Sixth round: 179th overall and 216th overall
- Seventh round: 236th overall, 241st overall and 255th overall
We will update this story on Friday, when the Texans have multiple picks.