The Houston Texans have an option available if they can’t work out a long-term contract with receiver Will Fuller but would like him to return in 2021.
The former 2016 first-round pick is eligible for the franchise tag, and it would cost the Texans about $15.808 million to play on the one-year deal in 2021.
According to Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus, giving Fuller the tag is an efficacious roster move.
Fuller played on a $10.162M fifth-year option in 2020. While he has shown flashes of elite play over his first four seasons, it was no surprise that Houston was not comfortable extending him, given his long history with various injuries.
While he avoided the injury bug and played at an elite level in 2020 — which was even more notable because he no longer had the benefit of DeAndre Hopkins commanding opposing defenses attention — a six-game suspension for PEDs to close out his season wasn’t the ideal way to hit free agency. Deshaun Watson had made it clear he wanted Fuller back in Houston for 2021, but that was also back when Watson himself planned to be back in Houston for 2021.
At this point, Fuller probably could command some attention on the open market, and he was apparently the subject of trade deadline talks with the Green Bay Packers and others, but another one-year deal to see if Fuller can play a full season would make a lot of sense.
One big problem with Fuller is his availability. Although he was healthy for 11 games in 2020, he missed the final five due to a six-game suspension for violating the NFL’s performance enhancing drug policy. Consequently, Fuller will miss Week 1 of next season as that is the sixth game of the suspension.
Furthermore, Fuller doesn’t seem to do too well when he is away from quarterback Deshaun Watson. If Watson in another NFL city in 2021, the Texans will be paying over $15 million for a receiver who would be better suited with a franchise quarterback than toughing it out with whatever solution new coach David Culley has to start under center.
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