Houston Texans Hit With Brutal News As 2 Offensive Superstars Hit The IR
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
The Houston Texans did not drop a regular-season game Tuesday. They still took 2 brutal losses on the same side of the ball. General manager Nick Caserio said veteran right tackle Braden Smith and undrafted rookie Sam Hagen are both headed to injured reserve, which means C.J. Stroud opens the year without two of the tackles Houston just kept on the 53.
Smith is the expensive one. Houston signed him this spring to start at right tackle after 105 starts in Indianapolis, then watched a foot injury in joint practices with Carolina dump him onto a cart on Aug. 26. Caserio listed him as a designated-to-return player with a four-to-six-week window. That is a partial plantar fascia tear, and it will cost him at least the first four games.
🚨𝗜𝗡𝗝𝗨𝗥𝗬 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Texans OT Braden Smith will go on injured reserve as a designated-to-return player and is expected to miss “4-6 weeks,” while OT Sam Hagen is also headed to short-term IR, GM Nick Caserio announced.
(@Djbienaime) pic.twitter.com/TsPVDF6aP2— Polymarket Football (@PolymarketBlitz) September 1, 2026
How the Houston Texans Will Cover Right Tackle
Hagen is the depth piece who actually survived cutdown day. Now he is on short-term IR too. Two spots opened, and Houston filled them by bringing back tight end Brevin Jordan and defensive lineman Dominique Robinson.
“We released Brevin and DomRob. Resigned both of those guys, and the corresponding moves, Braden Smith’s going to IR and Sam Hagen’s going to IR. So, those guys will be–that’s four weeks, or four games, however you look at it,” Caserio told reporters.
Trent Brown is the next man up. Houston already re-signed the swing tackle on a one-year deal for this exact problem, because Smith’s availability has never been clean. He landed on IR in Indianapolis last December with head and neck injuries, had offseason neck surgery, and still was tracking toward camp. The foot injury is a new chapter, not the first one.
Brown can start against Buffalo on Sept. 13. He cannot replace both a $20 million free-agent tackle and the rookie who was supposed to give the room another body. Houston already rebuilt the interior with Ed Ingram and Wyatt Teller. The edges were supposed to be the settled part. They are not.
What These Houston Texans Injuries Change for September
Week 1 is Buffalo at home. Week 2 is Cincinnati. Week 3 is Indianapolis on the road. Week 4 is Dallas. Smith’s best-case return sits on the back end of that stretch, and even that assumes the plantar fascia cooperates. Hagen was never going to start those games. Losing him still leaves the tackle room one deep after Brown.
Houston went 12-5 last year because the defense smothered people and the offense survived. The market still prices this team like a playoff roster. Two tackles on IR do not wreck that by themselves. They do put more of the September plan on Brown, the interior, and Stroud’s ability to get the ball out before the edge arrives.
