Outside of CJ Stroud, the Houston Texans don’t seem to have many popular players

The Houston Texans are on the rise. They have one of the best young teams, with one of the most respected head coaches and a quarterback ready to take the reigns in the league. Still, right now the team isn’t creating new fans outside of Houston.

In a recent list of jersey and merchandise sellers according to the website NFLPA.com, the only NFL Top 50 player who plays for the Texans is Stroud. Even so, it doesn’t rank highly on the list, ranking only 25th among the top 50 players in the derivatives market. He’s behind more controversial guys like Aaron Rodgers and more inconsistent players like Jordan Love.

He’s even behind the brother of former Houston Texans legend JJ Watt; TJ Watt. The younger Watt plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers and is considered by most to be the best defensive player in the league. Still, the Steelers are currently not a popular team outside of Pittsburgh, and defensive players aren’t as popular as offensive players overall, so seeing Stroud come in behind Watt and other defensive players on the roster ( like Micah Parsons) should show us how far the Texans have to go to reach heights never seen before.

While the team has had guys who have come down the line of nationally beloved players, like Andre Johnson and our own Watt, it’s fair to say the team has a long way to go before reaching players like the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs or Steelers. Franchises with fan bases extend far and wide from their original host city.

However, Stroud and the current team might be able to help rectify this problem. This is a young and exciting team, who have done much to avoid being on the wrong side of the news in recent years. So it’s entirely possible that if the Texans have a big year, they can start to grow their fan base and get more players on rosters like this.

After all, the 49ers have six players on this roster; No. 5 Christian McCaffery, No. 8 Brock Purdy, No. 16 George Kittle, No. 23 Nick Bosa, No. 26 Deebo Samuel and No. 40 Fred Warner. So it’s clear that the Texans have the opportunity to put more than Stroud on this roster.

What we want to emphasize, however, is one thing. As much as we wish the Texans would become more popular, with more nationally recognized stars and more revenue for the team and players, that’s not the end all be all recognition. After all, the 50th most “popular” player (for lack of a better term) is Mac Jones.

A failed first round pick who is now a backup for the Jacksonville Jaguars.