Texans’ New Center Option Brings Insider Knowledge to Rebuilt O-Line

All eyes are on the Houston Texans' offensive line heading into the 2025 season. The doubts swirling around quarterback C.J. Stroud boil down to the 52 sacks he took last season and the strange manner with which the franchise overhauled its offensive line to solve that particular issue.

Among the new faces on the front line in Houston is former New England Patriots center Jake Andrews, who is battling third-year center Jarrett Patterson for the starting position in the middle of this re-shaped offensive line. Andrews has familiarity with Texans' offensive line coach Cole Popovich dating back to his senior season at Troy.

Familiarity With Popovich Gives Andrews a Quiet Edge

“I'd been trying since I was knee-high to a cricket trying to play center,” Andrews said on Texans Radio. “Nobody would ever let me do it all growing up. And then he finally came in, and I guess he was smart enough or dumb enough, whichever one you want to look at it.”

Whether or not Andrews' familiarity with Popovich gives him a leg up in the center competition remains to be seen. Patterson started nine games for Houston last year and allowed three sacks, three QB hits, and 12 total pressures. Andrews, on the other hand, only has one start to his name and didn’t take an offensive snap for the Patriots last year.

As for Popovich, he came to Houston after his one-year stint at Troy as an assistant offensive line coach under former O-line coach Chris Strausser, who was fired after the abysmal season the Texans' front line had last year. Andrews described his offensive line coach simply as a winner.

“He wants to win football games,” Andrews said. “He wants to go home, hang out with his family. He wants to come back the next day and start winning again.”

Of course, that familiarity with Popovich does have advantages for Andrews that he can spread to the rest of the offensive line talent. With all of the new faces on Houston’s front, Andrews helps bring everything together to execute the vision Popovich has for the offensive line.

“It's easy for me to say, ‘Hey, well you know we used to do it this way,’ and I know what Cole [Popovich] wants, Andrews said. “I know what he wants stuff to look like. And so maybe we didn't get to it in a meeting, maybe we didn't get to talk about it during the walkthrough, but when we get out there and I'm talking to guys about stuff in the locker room, I can let them know like, ‘Hey, let's try this differently,’ or, ’Hey, he wants this to look like that,’ when you've got XYZ out there in front of you.”

Houston’s New Offense Starts in the Trenches

Aside from the new faces all around Houston’s offense, the scheme will look different, too. Andrews gave a couple a hint at what Texans fans and the opposition can expect from the offense under new offensive coordinator Nick Caley on Sundays this fall.

“The ball is going to be run, I tell you that much,” Andrews said. “We're going to pound the rock and we're going to air it out. We're going to keep people on their toes and uhwe're going to play tough physical football and people are going to know when they wake up on Monday morning that they just got done playing the Houston Texans.”

Of course, for Houston’s offense to get back on track, the offensive line has to come together. Without the protection for Stroud and rushing lanes for Nick Chubb and Joe Mixon, the ceiling for Houston in 2025 isn’t much different from what it was last year. Getting the right guys in the lineup beyond entrenched starter Tytus Howard will be key for the Texans in training camp.

Andrews isn’t the only player fighting for a starting role on the offensive line. And even the training camp winners of those battles up front will undoubtedly be on a short leash this season, so Andrews is likely to get his shot at some point beyond the preseason to prove his worth to the franchise, whether that’s at guard or where he’d like to be at center.