Bijani: Texans OC Bobby Slowik encouraged despite 'moving pieces' on offensive line

(SportsRadio 610) - With the Texans just a few short days away from beginning one of the most highly anticipated seasons in franchise history in Baltimore, they've still yet to confirm what their starting offensive line will look like.

Putting the puzzle pieces together after limited opportunities to view practice, the Texans seem to have settled on Josh Jones, Jarrett Patterson and George Fant to shore up what looked to be a solidified unit less than a month ago.

Shortly after the Texans began training camp, the Texans and right tackle Tytus Howard came to agreement on a new three-year, $56 million contract, making him at the time the fourth-highest paid player at the position in the NFL.

For a short time, it appeared that the Texans had solidified an offensive line unit for the foreseeable future, with all five linemen including rookie Juice Scruggs signed through the 2026 season.

The organization had invested nearly $120 million in guaranteed money into three players on the front in Laremy Tunsil, Shaq Mason and Howard.

After last year's starting center Scott Quessenberry went down with a torn ACL during the second week of camp, the Texans were forced to thrust their second-round pick Scruggs into a starting role.

Despite that initial blow to a key position, Scruggs seized the opportunity with stellar play early on.

However, with Green and Scruggs both going down in the preseason finale against the New Orleans Saints, the Texans found themselves in a situation that felt like patrons on the Titanic had a better chance of preventing it from sinking by rearranging the deck chairs than the Texans did of figuring out enough of a suitable unit to protect their rookie quarterback.

"Kind of moving the pieces around, we got a lot of different people working at a lot of different places right now and it's been that way for a little while to be honest with you," Slowik said. "It's definitely a part of how you look at the game plan process. You have to be very aware – everything that we're doing as coaches at the end of the day is to put the guys in the best position they can be in to perform their best. It's a balance act, for sure, but it's something that's always there."

Sure, teams deal with injury all of the time at various positions. It's a part of the game.

However, having the injury bug take a huge chunk out of the unit that's charged with protecting one of the organization's most prized investments, C.J. Stroud, is not something that's always there.

Now, on their third different center to work with the first team offense since the start of training camp, the Texans have been forced to entrust a rookie sixth-round pick to protect their young quarterback.

Slowik says that the former Notre Dame center has shown the propensity to handle the job consistently since he arrived.

"The biggest thing that stands out with him is consistency and reliability," Slowik said. "You know what you're going to get – he's the same every day. He's very, very sharp. Mentally, he's on his calls, on his technique. He gets better every day. He's just extremely reliable for a young offensive lineman, that stood out from day one, really when he came in in training camp."

Needing to find a solution to spell Green after his injury, who might've found himself on the bench anyway to start the season, the Texans pivoted to Michael Deiter, whom the Texans signed during the offseason.

The former Dolphins interior lineman played well during the preseason and got regular run with the first team, but the Texans opted to seek a trade for a more athletic fit.

Sending a future fifth-round pick to Arizona, the Texans opted for the former University of Houston tackle, Josh Jones.

The 26-year-old Jones, listed at 6'7 and 319 pounds, has 21 starts under his belt the previous two season with the Cardinals at both right guard and right tackle.

However, Texans offensive line coach Chris Strausser and Slowik figured instead, they'd take a look at the versatile big man at left guard.

"We thought he was a pretty solid fit at guard to try him out there and see how he handled it, see how he responded, and he's responded really well," Slowik said. "He's done a good job. He's really honed in on the run game, pass pro. He's been really solid.

"Coming from tackle, that's not as much of an issue for him. It's more run game related, just tying into what exactly we do and why we do it the way we do it, which he has steadily gotten better at every day since he's been at that spot."

While the news of Tytus Howard being placed on IR this week was disconcerting to say the least, especially given the fact that the fifth-year pro had tried to give it a go in practice as recently as Wednesday, George Fant is easily the guy the Texans feel most comfortable with stepping into his respective role as he's had the most time with the unit to this point.

In general, Fant is the most experienced player in the Texans offensive line not named Laremy Tunsil or Shaq Mason, having started 63 of his 80 career games at right tackle for the Seahawks and Jets in parts of the last six seasons.

Fant, a un-drafted free agent, played college basketball at Western Kentucky before giving football a shot, is listed at 6'5 and 322 pounds and looks every bit of it.

He signed a one-year deal with the Texans two days after training camp began in late July and Slowik noticed his natural athletic abilities from the time he laid eyes on the big fella.

"From the workout and on really, he just jumps out as someone who is really athletic for a tackle," Slowik said. "He has some serious movement skills for a big man, and it shows on tape. That really fits what we want to do in the run game in particular, and how important it is that you're able to do that when we do our outside zone stuff and then we have our other run game that kind of balances out with that. That would be the number one thing."

As the Texans head into Baltimore for Sundays regular season opener, the number one thing right now is keeping CJ Stroud upright.