The NFL’s worst-kept secret is that the Houston Texans have the league’s best defense and an offense that struggles mightily to keep up with its counterpart.
The Texans have good offensive players. Even excluding C.J. Stroud, who has collected a low floor but an overall mixed bag of opinions in his three seasons, Nico Collins spearheads a deep receiver room, and the trade for David Montgomery adds reliability to the run game, which was absent of such a trait last season.
But nothing on offense has consistently gone right for Houston over the past two seasons because every other play is blown up before it can start, thanks to their offensive line’s loathsome execution.
Heading into 2025, the Texans traded away their Pro Bowl LT Laremy Tunsil, used one draft pick on a lineman (Aireontae Ersery) and attempted to shuffle the deck with equal levels of talent from 2024. The result was an arguable step back under new offensive coordinator Nick Caley.
This year, the plan isn’t much different; however, the results will be better because of one ferocious professional whose adaptability and tenacity will take the Texans over the top.
Keylan Rutledge’s grit and determination to be the Texans’ center of the future will reshape their offensive line and unlock the team’s true potential.
Keylan Rutledge’s Car Crash Almost Cost Him His Career
“When I first got back there on the grass, it was just a blessing.”
In 2023, Rutledge was driving back from a recruiting visit at Georgia Tech in the rain. Passing through a construction zone, his car swerved, toppled over and landed in a ditch. Rutledge survived, but dislocated his big toe entirely, leading to a severe infection that made the decision to amputate his left foot a real possibility.
Over eight weeks of treatment, doctors and Rutledge staved off the infection, saving his foot and his football career.
With a hint of fate, Rutledge joined Georgia Tech the following season, his third in college and first after transferring from Middle Tennessee, where he was named first-team All-Conference USA.
At the end of last year, the ACC named Rutledge a recipient of the Brian Piccolo Award for courage because of the character and determination he displayed in the two seasons after his car crash.
Rutledge Is a Walking Thesaurus of a Football Coach’s Favorite Adjectives
“Violent mauler”; “Tough as nails”; “Nasty. Violent. Tenacious.”; “A real one”.
Those are all descriptions in the titles of videos about Keylan Rutledge on the first page of Google’s search results.
There are plenty of on-field reasons to love what Rutledge can bring to the Texans — just take a look at what Georgia Tech did in the run game last season.
But it’s the intangibles where Rutledge stands head and shoulders above his peers, something that not only fits in general NFL locker rooms, but most specifically in the Texans’ and DeMeco Ryans’ “S.W.A.R.M.” culture.
During the Senior Bowl, coaches had to tell Rutledge to relax because he was being too competitive.
“He attempts to humiliate people when he gets the opportunity and coaches had to tell him to tone down the physicality in team period,” said NFL analyst Jordan Reid, who covered the Senior Bowl.
Rutledge flew up teams’ boards late in the pre-draft process because of his combine performance and rare athleticism for his size. Those numbers — like the best short shuttle of any offensive lineman — proved that what scouts were seeing on ACC tape was legit.
But it’s those tangible traits paired with his pugnacious persona that make Rutledge the answer to the Texans’ problems.
Training camp has already proven that Rutledge is on the right track.
Keylan Rutledge Will Get Better as the Season Progresses
“He’s locked in. He’s pushing himself every day, and I see continuous growth,” said Caley of Rutledge.
Caley has doled out heaps of praise for Rutledge over the course of the preseason.
“He’s a tough, nasty, accountable dude that is getting better every day.”
Rutledge’s level of commitment and early development have already moved him up the depth chart. He played guard in college, but with Ed Ingram’s extension solidifying RG, and Wyatt Teller being signed to play LG, the Texans immediately gave Rutledge the opportunity to shift to center.
He’s taken that assignment in stride, already leaping last year’s erratic, at best, Jake Andrews for the starting center nod in the team’s first preseason depth chart.
Can One Rookie Elevate an Entire Offensive Line?
Every day, a new comment comes out of training camp about something Rutledge did. The other day, he started a scuffle with Texans’ All-Pro lineman Will Anderson Jr., which, as Ryans noted, is not someone many people have ever chosen to confront.
Rutledge brings his high-energy, ultra-competitive spirit at every single opportunity, and THAT is what the Texans have been missing. Not a big lineman. Not a lineman with potential.
The Texans have lacked a lineman who will set the tone, change the culture and bring a sense of pride to their run and pass blocking group.
Even when Laremy Tunsil was keeping Stroud safe, it never felt like he was leading his line. He was doing his job while everything to the right of him was crumbling.
Adding Rutledge’s ferality to the middle of this group will supercharge those around him. When Stroud gets knocked to the ground, there will be a hand to help him up and ‘Big Red’ will take his chance to get in the culprit’s face.
Rutledge will make plenty of mistakes along the way. He is playing out of position, after all, and offensive line is one of the hardest positions for a rookie to find success with.
But make no mistake: in this case, the Texans made the right choice by drafting for need.
Keylan Rutledge is going to turn the Texans’ sad offensive line into a group that plays extremely hard, fights for every inch, and provides enough stability to allow the offense to keep up with the NFL’s best defense.
Once that happens, the Texans will march into Los Angeles in 2027 and claim Super Bowl LXI.
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