Texans Thursday: Let's talk about Tank Dell

Houston's second-year wideout has been displaced by Stefon Diggs in the pecking order, with some weird results

“I think it is very important,” C.J. Stroud said when asked how important he felt it was to get Tank Dell involved after Week 7’s loss to the Packers. “We have to find a way to try and get him the rock early and often and then go from there.”

But the output has not matched that statement. Before Nico Collins was lost to injured reserve, Dell hadn’t done better than seven targets in a game all season. Even after Collins was hurt, Dell’s seven-reception, 57-yard outing against the Patriots wasn’t exactly sublime. He’s not really to blame for the Texans inability to move the ball against the Packers, because the entire offense was bogged down by the level of offensive line play. But he did drop a touchdown:

It’s pretty easy to talk about the statistical decline Dell had before the Collins injury because there are two pretty straight lines to draw with the Texans offense last year versus this year. One is that the team as a whole just cannot attack downfield this year. Stroud’s intended air yards per attempt in 2023 was 9.2. His intended air yards per attempt in 2024? 7.4. One of those figures was top-five, the other is solidly middle of the pack.