Houston Texans Fantasy Football News | Shark Bites

Texans S Jalen Pitre left Sunday's game against the Ravens with a chest injury and was quickly ruled out. We'll see about the official diagnosis. M.J. Stewart entered the game in Pitre's place in a secondary already missing S Jimmie Ward (hip).

Update: Pitre went to the hospital with a bruised lung after taking a knee from Ravens QB Lamar Jackson. NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reports that Pitre "should be OK." We'll see how much time he's expected to miss.

Texans WR John Metchie (hamstring) is out for Sunday’s game vs. the Ravens. He’s off the redraft radar. Nico Collins, Robert Woods, Noah Brown, and Tank Dell will operate as Houston’s top four WRs.

Texans WR John Metchie (hamstring) did not practice on Wednesday. He missed much of the spring with a hamstring injury, although it's unclear if this is related. Metchie wasn't slated to open the season with a top-three role even if he was healthy. He's not worth rostering in redraft leagues right now.

Texans TE Dalton Schultz ranked third at the position in first-team snaps in Sunday night's preseason finale. He played just four of the nine snaps that QB C.J. Stroud played, running two routes and drawing one target. Schultz did lead Houston TEs in those latter two categories. But he trailed Teagan Quitoriano (six snaps) and Dalton Keene (five) in playing time. It's just one game, and Stroud attempted only four passes total. Schultz's three targets in the previous outing tied for second on the team. So Sunday night's usage shouldn't leave you panicking if you've already drafted Schultz. But it's enough to confirm that he belongs in TE2 territory of upcoming fantasy football drafts. And if you have already drafted Schultz, you might want to check our TE rankings for an early pickup off waivers as insurance.

The Texans have officially named QB C.J. Stroud their regular-season starter. It's the move we've all expected basically since he was drafted. But it's nice to get official word ahead of the regular season. Stroud sits low in our QB rankings, though, and shouldn't be in your sights outside of superflex or 2-QB leagues, or late in best ball tournament drafts.

Texans WR Tank Dell was held out of Saturday’s preseason game with a tight leg muscle. In other words, he shouldn’t miss much practice time. “[He] felt a little tightness there… Tank will be fine,” HC DeMeco Ryans said. “We didn’t think it would be smart to put him out there, but Tank will be fine.” Dell remains an intriguing late-round flier in PPR setups.

A judge has ruled Bengals RB Joe Mixon not guilty of aggravated menacing charges that stemmed from a road-rage incident, according to multiple reports. That can only be good for Mixon's chances to avoid league suspension. He still faces a civil suit related to an offseason shooting that occurred on his property. We have no way of knowing how -- or if -- that might affect Mixon under the personal-conduct policy. We'll keep watching the situation. But Mixon's spot in our 2023 fantasy football rankings assumes no NFL suspension.

Texans WR Tank Dell was the most impressive player in Thursday night's preseason opener vs. the Patriots. The rookie caught five of eight targets for 65 yards and a score, flashing explosive burst after the catch and impressive concentration on his TD. “It was good to see Tank make some plays,” HC Demeco Ryans said afterward. “We’ve seen him make a lot of plays throughout training camp, some of these same plays, so it was good to see him do the same thing here in a game. He’s going to be an explosive playmaker for us, and we look forward to him continuing to make some of those plays.” There's plenty of room in Houston's WR corps for Dell to carve out a significant role this season. He's moving up our WR rankings.

Texans QB C.J. Stroud has taken “the bulk” of first-team reps for three straight days, per beat writer DJ Bien-Aime. While a near lock to start Week 1, the rookie barely cracks the top 30 of our fantasy QB rankings.

Update: Stroud will start Week 1 of the preseason on Thursday.

Bengals RB Joe Mixon has a lingering legal case that might still produce NFL discipline. He has an Aug. 14 court date on aggravated menacing charges stemming from the March 6 shooting incident at his home. Mixon was cleared of any further charges there but has been sued by the minor who was shot at by the boyfriend of Mixon's sister. We'd assume that lawsuit wouldn't motivate NFL discipline against Mixon. But the NFL's personal-conduct policy doesn't require any certain level of legal action to trigger suspensions. We'll certainly keep watching the whole situation but aren't currently factoring it into Mixon's spot in the fantasy football rankings.

Texans TE Dalton Schultz was back on the practice field on Friday, participating in full-team drills, per insider Aaron Wilson. Schultz missed a few days with an undisclosed injury, but consider his fantasy value unchanged.

Texans QBs C.J. Stroud and Davis Mills remain in an “interchangeable rotation as starters during practice,” per reporter Brooks Kubena. Houston’s been serious about making Stroud earn the starting job. We see the second overall pick under center come Week 1, but we’ll watch him closely come preseason play.

Per beat writer John Shipley, Jaguars WRs Christian Kirk and Zay Jones “have picked up where they left off [last season].” Kirk and Jones enjoyed career years, finishing at PPR WR12 and WR26, respectively. A healthy Calvin Ridley figures to limit target volume. But the Underdog Fantasy ADPs on Kirk (WR27) and Jones (WR49) put them in a draftable range. See where they sit in our updated WR rankings.

Texans TE Dalton Schultz missed his second straight practice on Tuesday. HC DeMeco Ryans recently downplayed the injury, but we’ll see when Schultz returns to practice.

Texans beat writer Jonathan M. Alexander believes the ground game will be the “focal point” of new OC Bobby Slowik’s offense. RB Damien Pierce leads the attack after an eye-opening rookie campaign. “For us to be a good offense, we have to have Dameon at his A-game,” Texans HC DeMeco Ryans said. “Dameon has been having a great offseason from OTAs to even now. He looks great and in shape. Every time he touches the ball, you see the speed and physicality.” Now, Pierce has his eyes set on hitting 1,000 rushing yards. “I definitely want to cap 1,000 (yards rushing),” Pierce said. “Slowik expects that, everybody around me expects that and I’m going to try everything in my power to get that.” The 23-year-old hits our fantasy RB rankings as a top-24 option.

The Vikings and Edge Danielle Hunter have agreed to a one-year, $20 million deal, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. The pact ends offseason negotiations that included reports of Hunter being on the trade market. Hunter will play out his age-29 season in Minnesota. He has remained high among D-linemen in our 2023 IDP rankings.

Texans WR John Metchie has been cleared for the start of training camp, ESPN's Adam Schefter reports. Metchie missed his entire rookie season after being diagnosed with leukemia and was sidelined for much of the spring with a hamstring injury. If healthy, the 2022 second-round pick has a real shot to win a top-three role in Houston's WR corps.

Lions DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson was carted off the practice field Monday morning after suffering a non-contact knee injury, according to multiple reports. We'll await an official diagnosis, but this obviously sounds pretty serious. A healthy Gardner-Johnson would be a candidate for both the primary slot CB role and some safety work. We'll see about Detroit's defensive plans going forward.

Update: NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reports that the injury doesn't appear to be serious, according to team sources.

New Texans TE Dalton Schultz has thrived on target volume over the past three seasons. He racked up the fifth most PPR points among TEs as Dallas' starter over the past three years, while ranking fourth in targets, seventh in yards, ninth in yards per game and 27th in yards per catch (among 27 TEs with 50+ receptions over that span). Schultz ranked 27th, seventh and 17th among TEs in Pro Football Focus receiving grade in those three seasons, among players with 40+ targets by season. Schultz landed in a Houston offense with no defined target hierarchy. But he also managed just a one-year, $6.25 million deal on the open market ahead of his age-27 season. All told, he doesn't look like a player to bet strongly on or against in fantasy football drafts. Schultz's TE14 ADP helps the case for drafting him by minimizing the risk. See where he sits in our 2023 fantasy football rankings.

The Bengals and RB Joe Mixon have agreed to a restructured contract that will keep him with the team through 2023. There have been rumors all off-season of Cincinnati dumping Mixon’s big contract, but the restructure saves the team cap space. It also locks him in as the continued backfield leader and a value in fantasy football drafts. Mixon has sat high in our fantasy football rankings the whole time.