NFL Teams Betting - Houston Texans - AFC South

is about taking the next step for the Texans, as they went to and won the franchises first playoff game last year. Houston will go as far as quarterback Matt Schaub takes them, and Schaub was lost for the 2011 season in November, effectively crushing the Texans' Super Bowl hopes. Houston will look toward its dominant offensive line to establish fantasy stud Arian Foster and keep defenders off Schaub. If Schaub stays healthy, with the Texans explosive running game and newly dominant defense, Houston is on the very short list of AFC title contenders.

The Texans have finally grown up. In the years prior to 2011, the franchise made small, incremental improvements from season-to-season but never fully got away from the two-steps-forward, one-step-back (or vice versa) routine. There was talent. There was potential. But the results never quite followed.

Until last season.

In 2011, potential was finally realized. The Texans went from pretenders to contenders, even as they suffered injury to key player after key player — Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson and Mario Williams among them. They prided themselves on their “next man up” philosophy and it served them well, all the way to the AFC Divisional Playoffs, where they fought tooth-and-nail with a third-string quarterback (T.J. Yates) in tow. So in 2014, it will be about the Texans taking the next step — to become a Super Bowl contender for the first time in the franchise’s history.