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Houston Texans join growing NFL trend with front office shake up in preparation for 2025 season

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Kyle Crabbs | Last updated Jun 9, 2025 5:41 PM ET

The summer months often serve as a time for front office reshuffling. While general manager and coaching changes usually happen in the winter months as soon as the season comes to a close, the timeline for scouts and player personnel usually pushes past the tentpole events of the offseason. The motivation here is that foundational work for the NFL Draft and, oftentimes, free agency starts in the summer — changing out people and responsibilities can put new hires or promotions into tough spots.

The Houston Texans have joined the fray with some major promotions from within their building this summer, joining a recent trend of teams who have aspired to have multiple high-level assistant executives in their ranks. Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports is reporting that James Liipfert and Chris Blanco have both been elevated to the title of ‘Assistant General Manager’.

The Texans are promoting both James Liipfert and Chris Blanco to Assistant General Manager, sources tell @NFLonCBS. Liipfert has been with the Texans since 2018 after 9 years with Patriots. Blanco has been with Houston more than a decade across two stints.
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) June 9, 2025

The Bills most recently initiated multiple assistant general managers in their front office as well, promoting Terrance Gray to the title, while maintaining the rank for executive Brian Gaine, who previously held the title since 2022. The Cleveland Browns are another team that boasts multiple assistant general managers, as the team has both Catherine Hickman and Glenn Cook in that position.

For the Texans, Liipfert was most recently on Houston’s front office directory as the Executive Director of Player Personnel and previously served as the Director of College Scouting. Blanco was listed as the Assistant Director of Player Personnel and previously served as the Director of Pro Personnel in Minnesota. How both have their roles change underneath Nick Caserio is yet to be determined, but the top of the personnel hierarchy remains unchanged.

The promotions do put the Texans among those teams expanding front office leadership. As the Texans prepare for their 2025 season, the team now appears committed to strengthening their internal structure and providing Caserio with the utmost support staff with talent in the building that comes with pre-established chemistry with the rest of the building.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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