In the team’s history, the Houston Texans are still winless against two teams all time, in the regular season — the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings. In fact, in their two trips to U.S. Bank Stadium, the Texans have lost in fairly ugly fashion. On Saturday, once again, the Texans wound up on the wrong end of a road trip to Minnesota, final score 20-10, but thankfully this was a preseason game, where the final score only mattered to degenerate gamblers.
Ultimately, if you’re a Houston Texan fan, the main thing you were hoping to come away with on Saturday evening was (a) a game with no serious injuries to any Texans players, and (b) signs of cohesion and capability on the offensive side of the football, even if it was Davis Mills as the skipper for the starting unit, not C.J. Stroud, who joined over a dozen other starters in street clothes.
This time of year, it’s all about individual winners and losers, as guys fight to make the 53 man roster, so here we go — winners and losers from preseason Week 1:
WINNERS
4. Braxton Berrios
Berrios signed with the Texans this offseason on a one-year, $2 million deal with hopes of making the roster in a deep wide receiver room. Coming off a knee injury in 2024, he’s had an excellent camp in 2025, and he built on that with a solid game on Saturday. Berrios caught three passes for 33 yards and scored the Texans’ only touchdown of the afternoon. Add in Berrios’ history as a kick returner, a skill where he was an All Pro in 2021, and the prospects of Berrios making the team are certainly on a positive trajectory.
3. E.J. Speed
Speed is kind of the defensive version of Berrios. After spending the first several seasons of his career with the Colts, and working his way from special teamer to starting linebacker, he signed a one-year, $3 million deal to try to crack the Texans’ linebacker rotation. With Christian Harris still working his way back from a calf injury, Speed has gotten reps with the first and second string defenses in camp, and on Saturday, he played a very productive first half, with two tackles (including a tackle for loss) and a pass breakup. Speed was one of the standouts last week in the practices at the Greenbrier.
2. Davis Mills
Maybe there’s an unintentional theme developing here in my article. Unlike Speed and Berrios, Mills was already in the building with the Texans, but he, too, signed a one-year extension last season for $5 million to remain the backup quarterback in Houston, and set himself up for a bigger payday in 2026. Mills' ceiling as a pro might be “high level backup,” but he’s flashed starter’s potential in camp with some outstanding work in the passing game, and on Saturday, his only drive led to the Texans’ only touchdown. It was a balanced (5 runs, 5 passes) drive which went 10 plays for 74 yards. The Texans can win a few games with Mills if anything were to happen to Stroud (God forbid).
1. Aireontae Ersery
The Texans have drafted at least one offensive lineman with a first or second round pick in each of the last four drafts. The first three of those have either failed (Kenyon Green) or could be in the midst of failure (Juice Scruggs, Blake Fisher, more on him in a minute). Ersery is still very early in his career, but the rookie had a fantastic debut on Saturday, moving guys in the run game to open holes for Dare Ogunbowale, and protecting Mills’ blind side. It remains to be seen if Ersery will be a left tackle or right tackle at the NFL level, but it’s safe to say that he will be a starting tackle for the Texans this season.
LOSERS
4. KTRK production
One of the perils of preseason football is that the broadcasts are not distributed by the big national, resource-rich outlets. Local TV picks up these games, and in Houston, that means the games are on Channel 13. I have zero qualms with the actual broadcasters. Kevin Kugler, John Harris, and ND Kalu are fantastic, and Shelby Coppedge has been a nice addition on the sidelines. The actual mechanics of the production are lacking, though. For the first quarter of Saturday’s game, whoever was in charge of the down and distance graphic either had vertigo or was drunk, because multiple times they were wrong on both down and distance. Also, on the Vikings’ final touchdown drive, when it looked like the Vikings had scored, the touchdown was being reviewed, and instead of showing the replay to the TV audience, Channel 13 showed us the riveting shot of the ref watching the play on his monitor. Amateur hour stuff.
3. Safety depth
With C.J. Gardner-Johnson out with a knee injury, one that thankfully appears to be way less severe than it looked on Thursday of last week, and Jimmie Ward out with injury and a complex legal situation, the Texans’ safety depth is being tested. Add in Calen Bullock resting for this game, and rookie Jaylen Reed still out, and you got to see a whole lot of Russ Yeast, M.J. Stewart, and random others playing safety. If you’re looking for reasons why this was just sort of a blah defensive performance, that’s a big one.
2. Graham Mertz
Mertz was making his NFL debut, after recovering from an ACL tear suffered at Florida last season, and after a first few weeks of camp where Mertz threw the ball very well at times. Well, let’s just say Mertz will never forget his first time playing in the NFL, as he threw three picks in the fourth quarter, preventing any sort of chance for the Texans to mount a comeback. Mertz is in a battle with Kevon Slovis to be the emergency quarterback for this team. Slovis wasn’t great, but he didn’t wet the bed like Mertz.
1. Blake Fisher
After a rookie season in which Fisher was forced to start some games down the stretch, including the two playoff games, there was big time hope for the tackle out of Notre Dame coming into his second season. To say that hope has gone unfulfilled would be an understatement. Fisher has been the biggest disappointment in camp thus far, and on Saturday, he had the worst run blocking grade (29.3) on the team, according to Pro Football Focus. His pass blocking grade (32.8) wasn’t much better. Right now, Fisher, a second round pick just a year ago, is closer to getting traded for a Day 3 draft pick than he is to making the Texans’ roster.
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