Tag: Texans receiver

Houston Texans 2022 NFL draft target: Texas A&M receiver Ainias Smith

If the Houston Texans are looking for a younger option at receiver in 2022, Texas A&M WR Ainias Smith could be an option in the NFL draft.

The Houston Texans drafted Nico Collins in the third round of the 2021 NFL draft, but they still have some questions to answer about the position going forward.

Randall Cobb will be entering the final year of his contract, and it would only cost $2 million in dead money to part ways with the former 2011 Green Bay Packers second-round pick, who will be 32 years old. It will also cost $2.5 million to cut Brandin Cooks, although he will just be 29 years old and still with a couple good years remaining.

Wideouts Chris Conley, Alex Erickson, and Donte Moncrief will be out of contract as their one-year deals will have expired.

If Houston wants to look to the draft for a younger solution at receiver, they need to keep an eye on Texas A&M receiver Ainias Smith, who is considered a wild-card in Pro Football Focus’ college receiver rankings.

WILD CARD: AINIAS SMITH, TEXAS A&M (JUNIOR)

While the 2021 receiver class was chock full of players, like Smith, who fit into the “offensive weapon” category, he stands nearly alone in his own category in 2022.

The Texas A&M pass-catcher took 143 snaps from the backfield, 323 from the slot and only 60 out wide in 2020. He is pure dynamism, and the Aggies’ offense wanted to get the ball in his hands as easily as possible. He broke 21 tackles on 65 catches the past two seasons with an average depth of target a mere 9.4 yards downfield while adding 18 broken tackles on 55 rushing attempts over that span. At 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, he may never fit the mold of an outside receiver, but he’s a playmaker who will be coveted nonetheless.

Smith would be an ideal replacement for Cobb, who produced 38 catches for 441 yards and three touchdowns through 10 games last season. If Cobb has a similar year, including having his season cut short by mid-November, general manager Nick Caserio may be inclined to go younger at the position.

WR Brandin Cooks may be the Texans’ only ‘sure thing’ in 2021

Houston Texans receiver Brandin Cooks may be the only dependable element for the offense in 2021.

Brandin Cooks was considered by many to be a questionable addition to the Houston Texans offense in 2020. Following the departure of perennial All-Pro Deandre Hopkins for a second-round pick, immediately trading a second-rounder for a lesser talent in Brandin Cooks raised eyebrows.

Maybe Houston was just trying to save money? Assemble a lightning quick offense around young franchise quarterback Deshaun Watson? Regardless, the move was universally met with a: meh. Recently concussed, relatively expensive, and walking in the footsteps of a franchise favorite created low expected for Cooks in 2020.

Nobody told Brandin, apparently.

Cooks finished 2020 top-15 in receiving yards (12th, 1,150 yards) and top-25 in catches (22nd, 81 catches) on 119 targets during a career year from Watson. Houston joined as the 4th team to be the beneficiary of a 1000-yard Cooks season, with no. 13 previously having accomplished the feat in New Orleans, New England, and on the Los Angeles Rams.

He is without a doubt one of the most underrated receivers in the NFL at this point, Cooks’ resume is one that few have matched in their first seven seasons in the league. This should be a time where Houston feels phenomenal about their offense and with him as a key asset.

However, one year following his acquisition, things look a little murkier in Houston. Especially on offense, there are question marks everywhere. At quarterback, Watson is nowhere to be found, with no comments on the team and new Head Coach David Culley refusing to comment on the star quarterback. Seriously, not a single word.

The Texans current quarterback room projects to be lead by veteran Tyrod Taylor, considered one of the elite stop-gap quarterbacks in the league, and recent 3rd round pick Davis Mills from Stanford. Taylor is a heavy favorite to win the competition but nobody will be surprised if Mills’ sees time in 2021.

Baker Mayfield, Justin Herbert, and Taylor’s poor luck suggest it’s very possible. Texans fans may hope to see the young guy in what many project to be a poor season, with Houston currently sitting as Vegas underdogs in all 17 games. In fact. Cooks himself raved about Mills just this week.

Beyond who spins the rock for Houston this upcoming season, the dynamics on the field also project to be different for Cooks. Will Fuller, after a career season that was interrupted by a PED suspension, opted to sign with the Miami Dolphins and play with Tua Tagovailoa for the up-and-coming Dolphins. Randall Cobb, who was hampered by injury for most of 2020, and Keke Coutee, a former Bill O’Brien doghouse resident, are the two top returning receivers.

The rest of the receiving core features former sixth-round project Isaiah Coulter, recent third-round pick Nico Collins from Michigan (who may have a chance for major playing time), and some other veterans such as Donte Moncrief and Chris Conley.

In the running back core, former Denver standout Phillip Lindsay and wrong-side-of-30 Mark Ingram (who still killed Houston in 2020, don’t forget) join David Johnson in what projects to be a messy backfield.

Suddenly, Cooks is the most established weapon by a mile in Houston. Something Houston could never have expected when they dealt a 2nd rounder to Los Angeles. Fortunately, that’s something the team seems very comfortable with and Culley commented on that Thursday on a Zoom call with reporters.

“He’s a pro,” Culley said. “He’s a pro’s pro. He’s been in this league for a little while. He’s had success in this league. He’s a leader. He’s exactly what our football team needs moving forward. Looking forward to him not only being the kind of player that he’s been before, but even being better. Obviously, our young guys that are coming in here basically are going to learn how to do things quickly because he’s a pro’s pro.”

It’s a good thing Culley is confident in Cooks moving forward. He will have the tall task of helping to teach Collins, making life easier for whoever may end up under center for Houston whether it’s Watson, Taylor, or Mills, and, finally, Cooks will aim for his sixth 1,000 yard season in eight years.

History says we shouldn’t doubt Cooks in a new situation because he’s generally going to prove you wrong. Culley and the crew will be counting on Cooks and his electrifying play in 2021.

How much was money a factor in the Texans’ trading WR DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals?

DeAndre Hopkins’ contract requests were a motivating factor for the Houston Texans trading the receiver. How big were they actually?

Bill O’Brien told the world on April 16, 2020, over a month after the Houston Texans traded receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals that they just didn’t have the salary cap space to keep him.

It was the first time since the trade that anyone had heard from the organization about the shipping of the three-time All-Pro to the Cardinals for a 2020 second-round pick and former All-Pro running David Johnson.

“I would say, again, going back to what I talked about originally relative to contracts, injuries, the salary cap as a part of the game as we know it right now relative to the future of our team, next year, two years, three years down the road,” O’Brien said. “It was going to be very, very difficult to have an elite quarterback [Deshaun Watson], an elite defensive end [J.J. Watt], an elite left tackle [Laremy Tunsil] and other players and be able to do that. So, we felt like, again, after research and layers of research, that the best decision for our team was to move him to Arizona. That’s what we decided to do.”

2020 was the first year with O’Brien doubling up as both coach and general manager. After an 0-4 start, O’Brien was fired, and the subject of the Hopkins trade came up again. Was the Texans’ 0-4 start preventable if the club had decided to keep quarterback Deshaun Watson’s biggest target?

Chairman and CEO Cal McNair told Texans Radio play-by-play Marc Vandermeer on Oct. 7, 2020, that having to negotiate extensions for Watson and Tunsil in the offseason led to the departure of Hopkins.

“We have the franchise left tackle is a huge piece of the puzzle,” McNair said. “We have a franchise quarterback, which is what we’ve been looking for for years, and what every team is looking for and trying to get. And we have him, and we have a very firm belief that Deshaun is our guy. And, so, we had those two major contracts. If you look across the league, we are paying more than anyone, and it’s not really close, on our roster. And, so, when Hopkins wanted to redo his contract, it just wasn’t something that we could do.”

It is true that Hopkins wanted to rework his contract with the Texans, as evidenced by the extension he received from Arizona in September of 2020. However, paydays aren’t the only things that motivates Hopkins.

The Texans pitched the notion that it was difficult to pay for Watson, Watt, and Tunsil; there just wasn’t any salary cap space for Hopkins, who wanted more money. So, they just had to trade him.

Hopkins may have made that argument spurious.

In a tweet on May 21, Hopkins indicated via Doug Farrar of the Touchdown Wire that he would be willing to rework his contract with the Cardinals if that is what it took to acquire two-time All-Pro wideout Julio Jones from the Atlanta Falcons. The tweet has since been deleted, but Jess Root from the Cards Wire verifies that Hopkins’ reply with a GIF was in the affirmative that he would restructure his contract for Jones.

If Hopkins would be willing to restructure his contract so quarterback Kyler Murray could have Larry Fitzgerald, Jones, and Hopkins to target in the passing game, wouldn’t Hopkins also be willing to restructure his contract to allow Watson to have a premier pass protector, and maybe the defense to have a dominant edge rusher?

After the Texans traded Hopkins, they did finalize contract extensions with Tunsil, linebacker Zach Cunningham, and Watson. The club also restructured six players’ contracts to provide for salary cap space in the 2021 offseason.

The Texans enter a 2021 season with even more questions than they faced the year before, and one of the bad moves that continues to plague the franchise is the trading of Hopkins — whatever the motivations were.

Texans sign former Titans, Browns receiver Taywan Taylor

The Houston Texans have signed former Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns receiver Taywan Taylor.

The Houston Texans have added to their extensive receiving corps.

The club announced on Thursday they have signed former Tennessee Titans 2017 third-round pick Taywan Taylor.

After spending 2017-18 with the Titans, catching 53 passes for 697 yards and two touchdowns through 29 games, nine of which he started, Taylor was traded to the Cleveland Browns at the end of the 2019 preseason.

Taylor played six games for the Browns from 2019-20 and was targeted just twice in the passing game. Taylor played 51 snaps on offense compared to 23 on special teams in the same span. Taylor’s 2020 campaign was ended in early December with a neck injury as he was placed on injured reservre.

The Texans have Brandin Cooks, Randall Cobb, rookie Nico Collins, Isaiah Coulter, Keke Coutee, Andre Roberts, and Alex Erickson on the roster.

Texans’ Brandin Cooks ranks as the 26th-best WR in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus

Houston Texans receiver Brandin Cooks ranked as the 26th-best wideout in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus.

Who is going to be the number one receiver for the Houston Texans in 2020? That was the top question from the general public following the trade of DeAndre Hopkins last March.

There was a sense that Will Fuller could fill in the void left by Hopkins. But Fuller’s inability to play an entire 16-game season remained the reason why the Notre Dame prodigy would not live up to the expectations. Last year, Fuller appeared in 11 games before a suspension for performance enhancing drug violations ended his season prematurely. But who did aid the departure of Hopkins was Brandin Cooks.

The 27-year-old wideout from Oregon State finished the 2020 season with one of the best campaigns of his career. Cooks recorded a team-best 1,150 yards on 81 receptions and six touchdowns in 15 games.

Cooks’ near Pro-Bowl season might have ended in the Texans only winning four out of their 16 games. But according to Pro Football Focus, Cooks’ play resulted in him coming into 2021 as the 26th best wide receiver in the league.

“While a bevy of issues plagued Houston in 2020, that didn’t stop Cooks — who was playing for his fourth team in five years — from producing at a high level. He cracked the top 25 in both receiving grade (80.5) and yards per route run (2.05), both of which were the second-best marks of his career. With the help of his wheels, Cooks came away with 13 deep receptions in 2020, tying with Tyreek Hill for the third-most.” — PFF

Cooks joined the Texans last April following a trade from the Los Angeles Rams. His first season in Houston marked the fifth time in Cooks’ career where he eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards.

On Tuesday, Pro Football Focus began their series of ranking the best 32 players at each position ahead of the 2021 season. Through their first three positional rankings, Pro Football Focus considered Deshaun Watson as the league’s fifth-best quarterback.