Will Anderson, Houston Texans defense make cover of Sports Illustrated along with bold prediction

The Houston Texans haven't even made an AFC Championship Game, much less a Super Bowl, but Sports Illustrated is putting title expectations on the team in its annual NFL preview issue.

The magazine's cover story for the September issue is all about the Texans defense with a photo of Will Anderson Jr., flanked by Danielle Hunter, Jalen Pitre, Derek Stingley Jr., and Azeez Al-Shaair on the magazine's cover. The headline is "Texas-Sized Goals," along with a quote from Anderson: "We got to win the Super Bowl with it. That's the mission."

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Another cover features Anderson by himself posing on top of the Post Oak Hotel with the Houston skyline behind him. 

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Conor Orr, who wrote the story about the Texans defense, predicts Houston will win its first Super Bowl, beating the Seattle Seahawks at SoFi Stadium in February.

This is actually the fourth time Houston's football team has been on the cover of the magazine's NFL preview issue, although some of those were regional covers. Back in 1979, Earl Campbell was featured on the front and those Houston Oilers went on to lose a controversial AFC title game to the Pittsburgh Steelers. J.J. Watt was the feature in the 2015 issue, but that Texans team got shut out by the Kansas City Chiefs 30-0 in a wild-card playoff game. Then there was 2018 when Deshaun Watson was on a regional cover of the NFL preview, and that team lost to the Indianapolis Colts in the wild-card round.

This article originally published at Will Anderson, Houston Texans defense make cover of Sports Illustrated along with bold prediction.