This Year’s Top 30 Visits and What They Could Mean For The Texans’ Draft Plans

Now that we’re so close to the draft, I’d like to review the Texans’ Top 30 visits and reflect on what they could mean for the Texans’ draft plans. For those who don’t know, when a team brings a player to their facility on an official visit to interview them or work them out, it is dubbed a “Top 30” visit. This is not the top 30 players on a team’s big board, but rather thirty guys the team would like to find more out about. The list of players the Texans have met with includes various Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 guys.

Now, you may be thinking that the Texans aren’t necessarily going to draft players that they have met with, which is completely possible, of course. However, if we look at last year’s Top 30 visits, we’ll find that the Texans brought in Derek Stingley, Kenyon Green, John Metchie, Christian Harris, Thomas Booker and maybe Jalen Pitre (I only have one source confirming him) in for official Top 30 visits. It’s only a sample size of one year, and things may change under new head coach DeMeco Ryans, but at the very least it seems like Nick Caserio brings in guys he really likes and tries to target them in the draft.

So, let’s take a look at this year’s Top 30. It was kind of difficult at points to determine who was on a true Top 30 visit, and the number of players on this list doesn’t quite add up to thirty so a few are probably missing. I've added likely rounds/days that each player could be drafted on:

Bryce Young, QB, Alabama- Top 2

Will Anderson Jr., EDGE, Alabama- Top 5

C.J. Stroud, QB, Ohio St.- Top 5

Tyree Wilson, EDGE, Texas Tech- Top 10

Will Levis, QB, Kentucky- Top 15

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, WR, Ohio St.- Top 20

Brian Branch, S, Alabama- Mid to Late 1st

Myles Murphy, EDGE, Clemson- Mid to Late 1st

Dalton Kincaid, TE, Utah- Mid to Late 1st

Deonte Banks, CB, Maryland- Mid to Late 1st

B.J. Ojulari, EDGE, LSU- Late 1st to Mid 2nd

Steve Avila, OG, TCU- Late 1st to Mid 2nd

Hendon Hooker, QB, Tennessee- Late 1st to Early 3rd

Julius Brents, CB, Kansas St.- Early to Late 2nd

Trenton Simpson, LB, Clemson- Mid 2nd to Early 4th

Cody Mauch, OG/OT, North Dakota St.- Mid 2nd to Early 3rd

Tyler Steen, OG/OT, Alabama- Late 2nd to Early 4th

Tyjae Spears, RB, Tulane- Early 3rd to Mid 4th

Tank Dell, WR, Houston- Early 3rd to Mid 4th

DeMarvion Overshown, LB, Texas- Mid 3rd to Mid 4th

Moro Ojomo, DT, Texas- Late 3rd to Late 4th

Charlie Jones, WR, Purdue- Day 3

Marte Mapu, LB, Sacramento St.- Day 3

Ventrell Miller, LB, Florida- Day 3

Rakim Jarrett, WR, Maryland- Day 3

Payne Durham, TE, Purdue- Day 3

Brodric Martin, DT, Western Kentucky- Day 3 to Undrafted

My takeaways from this year’s visits:

-The Texans really, really like Will Anderson Jr. They met with him at the combine, spoke to him at his pro day, and made him one of their first Top 30 visits. They eventually brought in Tyree Wilson for a Top 30 as well, but I feel like that was the Texans just doing their due diligence on him. I don’t think this necessarily guarantees that the Texans skip on QB at 2, but if they do decide to go that route, Anderson is the likely pick in my eyes.

-The OL visits are a bit strange. There were no visits with centers or players who project as tackles (Mauch and Steen will likely be guards due to their shorter arm length). To be fair about center, though, the Texans did meet with John Michael Schmitz virtually multiple times and talked to Luke Wypler at the combine. I thought the Texans might look at a couple of tackles in case they don’t want to give Tytus Howard a big second contract, but that may not be in the cards for this draft. I also have to wonder if the Texans are looking at guards to give Kenyon Green a little competition if he doesn’t step up this year.

-Jaxon Smith-Njigba is likely the Texans’ top WR prospect. They haven’t met with any of the other “top” WRs (Johnston, Addison, Flowers, Hyatt, Downs) at all besides talking to Quentin Johnston at the combine. JSN at 12 is a real possibility, which I’m sure many of you will love.

-I get the feeling like DeMeco Ryans is going to look for his own Warner or Greenlaw, and will push for a mid-round LB. Overshown and Miller are particularly intriguing options for this role and I’d be excited to see DeMeco coach them up.

-The Texans obviously wanted to do their homework on the top 5 QBs, but missing from this list is Anthony Richardson. Supposedly the Texans were planning on bringing him in for a Top 30 visit, but it never materialized. It could just be a simple case of schedules not matching up, or it could mean something else. The Texans did meet with Richardson at the combine.

Do you guys have any thoughts about these Top 30 visits?