The Texans’ home schedule in 2012 includes Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Buffalo, Miami, Baltimore, Green Bay, Minnesota.
Their road schedule includes Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, New England, New York Jets, Denver, Chicago, Detroit.

Oh no. I just realixed the Texans have a road game in Denver this season. LOL
Still can't escape Peyton Manning... Inb4 an 8-8 record wins the AFC South in 2012.

And we'll make sure Mario Williams has a good homecoming when the Bills come to Houston!!!! I don't know whether to boo him, clap a few times or make no noise. That's a brutal schedule the Texans play this year. The times and dates should be out in a few weeks.

I'm just speculating but the Texans will probably have three or four nationally televised games this year. The Mario Williams and Peyton Manning games against the Bills and Broncos should be on primetime TV, along with the games against the Packers and Patriots. Maybe even the Texans versus Ravens game will be a nationally televised game.

They've got to go 6-0 in the division to have a real shot to repeat as AFC South Champions in 2012.

WTF!!!!!! Did the Houston Texans just trade DeMeco Ryans to the Eagles? There goes my third favorite player gone in one off-season if true.

FML. I'm about to rage and break my damn PC screen. According to a twitter post by John McClain of the Houston Chronicle.

John McClain
‏ @McClain_on_NFL

"Texans are trading MLB DeMeco Ryans to Eagles for undisclosed draft choice. The trade is contingent on Ryans' passing a physical Wednesday."



Now I've got to send off my sweet DeMeco Ryans sig into the photobucket heavens...

The excitement level of this team has dropped so much over the past week or so. I now feel like I did when David Carr was the starting quarterback of this team. Should I lower my expectations to an 8-8 team at beast? Perhaps 7-9 or 6-10? We still have a ton of talent but damn it sucks to lose three great players in Mario Williams, DeMeco Ryans and Eric Winston all in one off-season. Even Mike Brisiel was a beast at times.

It's hard enough having to replace the entire right side of the offensive line. Now we have to worry about adding one or two more LBs (replacing Mario and Ryans), along with another young wide receiver. Too many holes to fill in one draft. When the season ended, we had arguably the most talented team in the league -- the most balanced team in the league -- when healthy. All we had to do was bring everybody back to make a strong Super Bowl run in 2012. But now this team is looking like a wild-card team at best. It may be good enough to win the AFC South again only because none of the other teams are world beaters at the moment.

Dont get down on them quiet yet... The second round of Free agents is gonna happen in the next few weeks. Where they might solve a few problems. And if they can draft well we can still be in a good position. Do i hate that Mario, Demeco and Winston are gone... Yes but that is part of the beast of the NFL tough decisions but i have faith that Smith knows what he is doing... This is a bit different of an offseason compared too last year. When i woke up and checked my phone and saw demeco traded i almsot shit myself but time will tell...

I'm not as excited as I was last year at this time but if the Texans have another good draft it may not be so bad.

Idk if your telling the truth completely here. We came off that god awful defensive season this time last year. The lockout was in full force... I was not excited last year i was more nervous.

Keep it real, Texans Fans!

Wade Phillips was already hired and I was excited with the draft and free agency on the way. There was the ongoing lockout but also daily rumors we were going to make an aggressive run at either Nnamdi or Joseph (cornerback improvement). I thought we had one of the most talented teams in the league a year ago at this time even before adding Watt, Reed, Joseph and Danieal Manning. I knew Wade's 3-4 defense was going to shine. Every NFL team he went to during his first season as defensive coordinator made an incredible improvement in defensive rankings and made the playoffs. Which is what happened with the Texans in 2011.

There were a lot of reasons to be optimistic last March compared to this March. Now we lose Mario Williams, DeMeco Ryans, Eric Winston, Mike Brisiel, Lawrence Vickers. Basically five starters going into last season. That's a lot of positions that now need to be filled. At least in Mario Williams' case, losing him isn't a big loss, because we've got a stud in Brooks Reed that has taken over and played extremely well at his outside linebacker position. Any Houston fan who says he feels better about the Texans right now compared to last year at this time is kidding themselves.

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Mar 22 2012 09:27pm

Joel Dreesen goes to Denver...