Harrison\u2019s first game as a Texan<\/a>, Xavier Hutchinson saw the biggest drop-off in targets. He was targeted a season-low three times and had a season-low two catches for 10 yards.<\/p>\nKayshon Boutte also had a season-low 16 yards receiving.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a receiver\u2019s standpoint, it can be tough,\u201d Boutte said. \u201cEverybody wants the ball a lot. But that\u2019s not really the case here, honestly. I look at last year (with the Patriots), we made it far because of unselfishness. Here we\u2019ve got six guys. Anybody can catch the ball at any given moment. Everybody can make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
But winning helps keep players and coaches happy.<\/p>\n
The Texans (2-4) have won their last two games and appear to be trending up. No one will complain \u2014 at least publicly \u2014 when the team is winning.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen you\u2019re winning, you don\u2019t really care about the targets, the yards and stuff like that,\u201d Boutte said. \u201cEverybody supports each other. And that\u2019s a big thing. We talk every day. We\u2019re with each other every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re cool, everybody is close. That plays a factor in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryans agreed with Boutte\u2019s sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no beef in the wide receiver room,\u201d he said. \u201cGuys are still friendly, great teammates, encouraging one another, and that\u2019s what I love most about the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stroud has been in a similar situation before, both in college and during his rookie season.<\/p>\n
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At Ohio State in 2021, his receivers included Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Emeka Egbuka and Harrison.<\/p>\n
Stroud managed to distribute the ball, though he said it wasn\u2019t as easy as it looked. Three of those receivers had at least 900 receiving yards. The next-best receiver or tight end had just 309.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy, but I think it\u2019s good because now you can\u2019t really just focus in on Nico,\u201d Stroud said. \u201cYou can\u2019t really just focus in on Tank or whatever has been in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are a lot of different ways that we can move the ball and create explosives and use everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last Sunday\u2019s game in London against the Jaguars was Stroud\u2019s best of the season. Ten players caught passes from Stroud, and eight had at least two catches.<\/p>\n
Now the Texans will add Dell to the mix.<\/p>\n
Dell hasn\u2019t played in a game since December 2024, meaning Sunday\u2019s game will be his first in 673 days. It will also be his first game in offensive coordinator Nick Caley\u2019s offense, making his involvement a wild card.<\/p>\n
But Dell has been watching and learning, sitting in on every meeting and watching some practices from the sidelines when he wasn\u2019t rehabbing.<\/p>\n
Dell could have a role similar to Harrison\u2019s last week.<\/p>\n
But no one is setting expectations for Dell, especially considering few players have returned from the type of knee injury he suffered two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course y\u2019all know I\u2019m competitive, so I want to make some plays \u2014 a lot of plays,\u201d Dell said Wednesday. \u201cBut my main thing is to live in that moment, be where my feet are at, have fun and fly around, and be who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dell said he\u2019ll celebrate when others make plays, too. It\u2019s part of the culture in the wide receiver room. He said having a surplus of receivers is better than the alternative, and the Texans have felt the effects of that over the past two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look back to last year, and I don\u2019t want to harp back on last year, but you look at last year, we had receivers and tight ends down in a big game,\u201d Dell said. \u201cAnd just to have heads in the room to anybody who can go out there and make a play, it helps us.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we feed off each other\u2019s energy, feed off each other making plays, and I feel like we\u2019re competitive. If I see Nico make a play, in a not-selfish way, I want to go out there and make a play, and I\u2019m going to be happy for him, but I want to go out there and make a play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Texans wide receivers Nico Collins (12) and Marvin Harrison Jr. (18) take the field before an NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-474450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}