Texans Gaine expects to land starters with the team's first four picks

Houston holds the 23rd, 54th, 55th, and 86th selections.

HOUSTON – Houston Texans general manager Brian Gaine enters his second season in charge of putting the draft board for the team. There's a major difference from his first go-round at the draft in 2018 when the team did not have a selection until the third round.

Houston, coming off an AFC South championship and 11-5 season, will draft 23rd in the first round. They also hold the 54th and 55th picks overall (2nd round) and the 86th pick overall (3rd round).

Gaine expects to land players on the first two days of the draft that will start, but will not necessarily draft for need, but rather stay true to the team's draft board.

"We have four picks here in the top 86, so we get four selections here in the top three rounds," gaine said Thursday.

"We’re going to get four very good players. Ready to go to work. We’ll let the board speak for itself and let the board talk to us.”
 
With regards to needs for the team, Gaine said, "We’re focused more, not so much on need in the draft process, but we’re focused on the actual process. Get the board right, rank it correctly and really let the board speak for itself.

"Our focus is more about our preparation and the process of how we arrive to those decisions. So, those conversations have already happened and are still happening to this date as it relates to how the board will be finished, but the board will speak for itself and the board will speak to us about the next best player to pick.

"If it happens to be a position of need or perceived need and it happens to be the next best player on the board, those are the best selections, obviously, when it meets both of those," Gaine said.

"We want to make sure that the board speaks to us as it relates to whoever we pick when we’re on the clock.”

He also described his philosophy on trading up in the draft as opposed to trading back to acquire more selections.

“I think every situation is different. When it comes to supply and demand, there’s certainly a player that’s falling down the draft board, we evaluate every transaction that occurs," Gaine said.

"I think if there’s value on the board and that player is dropping and you had a high value on him and a high grade and you trust your process and that player’s starting to slide down the board, perhaps that’s worth a conversation, maybe if you had to go up and get him. I think conservatively speaking, I would always lend more toward accumulating more picks – more at-bats, more volume, more opportunities to take more players.”