The Houston Texans will be without an offensive and defensive starter for Sunday’s AFC showdown with the Baltimore Ravens. Both wide receiver Will Fuller and cornerback Bradley Roby did not travel with the team on Saturday, as they are nursing hamstring injuries.
The Texans’ decision to rest the two — despite being limited in practice all week — comes with eyes set towards the future. Houston will host the Indianapolis Colts four days after battling the Ravens.
The Texans would prefer to have two of their best players for a critical divisional matchup rather than rush them into a series of two games in four days prematurely.
“Look, you have a situation here where you have a game on Sunday, which is an important game — they’re all important games — then you turn right around and you’ve got a game Thursday night,” said coach Bill O’Brien on Friday. “So, you have to weigh all that. You have to weigh where they’re at relative to what our medical personnel are telling us and where they’re at, how they feel.”
Though the availability Fuller and Roby for a big-game would be ideal, Houston is looking at the big picture. Rushing a player back off of a hamstring injury rarely warrants positive results, as they tend to be lingering ailments.
The Texans saw the lingering nature of a hamstring injury in 2018. Then-rookie Keke Coutee missed most of the season for a non-major hamstring injury that aggravated itself seemingly every time he returned.
Rest is a proven method to avoid re-injury with hamstrings. The Texans will not make the mistake of not giving two of their best players rest.
On Sunday, the Texans will trot out Kenny Stills in-place of Fuller and likely the duo of Gareon Conley and Johnathan Joseph at cornerback. They are doing so to ensure that in a Thursday rivalry game, they will get to trot out Fuller and Roby — not their backups.