NFL: Houston Texans will be in the playoffs in 2014 if…

For the Houston Texans, as easy as 1-2-3 turned out to be not so easy when it came to the three.

Back in 2011, the franchise won the AFC South for the first time and made its initial playoff appearance. That was followed by a 12-4 campaign and another division title one year later. A third straight trip to the postseason seemed like it could be in the making after last season’s 2-0 start.

But the Texans never got to win number three, much less make it back to the playoffs. The franchise dropped the final 14 games of the season and wound up earning the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft rather than an invitation to the postseason tournament.

Now it is a new beginning for the Texans, who hope that year No. 13 in the league proves to be a lot luckier than the previous season. This is a league where going from worst to first is a somewhat annual event.

This is the first part of a 32-team series in which we’ll look at the “if, and & but’s” of each team’s chances to make the postseason.

Houston will make a third trip in five seasons to the playoffs…