Tanked. That’s essentially the word that keeps popping into my head in regards to the state of the Texans wide receiver room after Tank Dell went down with another gruesome injury. After all, this is a team that has been absolutely ravaged by pass-catching injuries this year with season-ending torn ACLs for both Stefon Diggs and now Dell, along with a long stretch of missed time for Nico Collins. While sure, it’s a play on words with Dell, it’s also pretty accurate when you consider just what this crew looks like in comparison to what they hoped they had at the beginning of the season. The Texans depth and creativity has been tested and they’ve even gone as far as now adding former Steelers, Panthers and Ravens receiver Diontae Johnson into the mix. This is one of the most intriguing receiving corps in the league and one we really need to re-assess in terms of dynasty value as it’s clearly changed a lot during the course of this season. Let’s take a look at each of the receivers on the Houston roster and evaluate their dynasty value at the present time.
Nico Collins, WR HOU
Here’s the one thing we know for sure – Collins is a stud. After a breakout 80/1,297/8 season last year, Collins has posted a 60/909/6 line this year in just ten games, with his PPG average making him the overall WR5 in most PPR fantasy leagues. While he missed time this year with an injured hamstring that landed him on short-term IR, Collins has been a “set it and forget it” lineup lock in every game he’s played this season. With all the injuries to the Texans wide receiver room, it’s done nothing but solidify Collins as the WR1 on the team and an elite-level WR1 in dynasty leagues as well. He’s currently our WR6, a ranking that clearly won’t go down any time soon and could actually crack the top five when all is said and done this off-season. If there’s a constant on the Texans, it’s him.
Tank Dell, WR HOU
Well, this is unfortunate to say the least. Dell was a revelation last year with 47 catches for 709 yards and seven touchdowns in just 11 games before breaking his fibula and missing the rest of the season. He was electric with the ball in his hands and looked like the rookie draft steal of the year until that unfortunate injury. Dell started out slowly this season, but was coming on strong over the past month. While his 51/667/3 line isn’t exactly eye-popping, anyone watching could see he was just rounding back into form. In fact, he had seven catches, and 98 yards in his last game before having his knee obliterated on a touchdown catch of all things. The injury itself is a bad one – he endured a dislocated kneecap, and tore his LCL, MCL, ACL, and damaged his meniscus on the play. In short, that’s catastrophic.
Dell is going to have surgery soon and there’s no reason to believe he won’t recover from this. However, it’s late in the season and the idea he’s going to be ready for opening day in 2025 seems very unrealistic. He is now nothing more than an upside roster stash with little trade value as he likely won’t be back to full strength until the beginning of the 2026 season and that’s a bitter pill to swallow. This is the nature of the game, but it’s been hard to watch one of the most promising receivers in the league have his career derailed not once, but twice. Expect his ADP to, well, tank this off-season.
Stefon Diggs, WR HOU
If there’s a wild card here, it’s Diggs. He restructured his contract right after the off-season trade from Buffalo and will be a free agent at the end of the season. He’s been dominant at times, posting 857 career catches for 10,491 yards and a whopping 70 touchdowns over his 144 career games, setting a pace where he scores just about every other week. This season was off to another hot start as the former Bill and Viking ranked seventh in the NFL in catches (47) this and was second on the Texans in yards (496) before getting hurt. In most fantasy formats, he was the WR8 overall, making him an easy “set it and forget it” option each and every week.
Diggs is already 30 years old and again, restructured his contract to become a free agent at the end of the season – he’ll do so now as an aging receiver coming off a major injury. He may end up staying in Houston on a reduced contract and the injury to Dell may ensure the Texans make a very competitive offer to keep him as his recovery should be much more timely and simple. We’ll see how they react, but it would be no surprise to see Diggs back with the Texans and this injury makes that much more likely. Still, Diggs will have options in free agency and his decision will be very interesting now.
Diontae Johnson, WR HOU
The Texans grabbed Johnson off waivers and clearly hope things work out better with them than they did with the Ravens. The former Steeler started out the year in Carolina and was traded to Baltimore at the deadline. What happened next was an unmitigated disasters as Johnson failed to get much playing time, then actually refused to enter a game when some time was offered to him. Houston will try to suck some value out of him the rest of the way, but Johnson needs to show something fast to make other teams very interested in his services at the end of the season when he’s a free agent. In short, Johnson’s dynasty value is cratering and he needs to step up quickly to stop its freefall.
Robert Woods, WR HOU
The Texans have obviously lost a lot of faith in Woods as he’s barely playing. Once one of the best receivers in fantasy and reality, Woods is really no more than a shell of his former self and the Texans seem to be accepting that. He looks like a player who could post a big game on any given week, but also one who is likely no more than a roster clogger in dynasty leagues.
John Metchie, WR HOU
Metchie is so easy to root for, but his season has yielded just 17 catches for 182 yards and one touchdown thus far. It’s hard to see even this latest injury to Dell opening the flood gates for him to achieve his potential.
With all this being said, tight end Dalton Schultz could flourish over the final couple of weeks and CJ Stroud has to be considered more of a risky play over the next couple of weeks as well.
Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK