Fantasy Football Player Notes
2024 Draft Rankings
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28.
Nico Collins
WR - (at TEN)
Nico Collins had a breakout season in his third year with the Texans, propelled by his partnership with quarterback C.J. Stroud. He showcased remarkable yards after catch ability, amassing nearly 1,500 receiving yards with 1,370 air yards, and a significant portion of his yards came after the catch. Collins boasted a 24% target share and ranked second among all WRs with 3.11 yards per route run, a feat achieved by only a select few players since 2017. Despite the potential arrival of Stefon Diggs impacting his target share, Collins' efficiency should remain high with another threat on the field to divert defensive attention.
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45.
Joe Mixon
RB - (at TEN)
Joe Mixon and Rachaad White were the Spiderman GIF last season. Both were exceptionally inefficient runners who survived on volume and passing game work. Mixon was the RB11 last season, ranking eighth in snap share, third in opportunity share, and seventh in weighted opportunities. He was whopping fifth in carries and 13th in targets as Cincinnati worked in Chase Brown only sparingly. He has the opportunity to reprise that same workload in Houston. With only Dameon Pierce, Dare Ogunbowale, Jawhar Jordan, and J.J. Taylor behind Mixon, he should be the unquestioned bellcow for the Texans in 2024. Last season, Mixon's per-touch efficiency was horrendous. He was 36th in yards per touch, 35th in yards created per touch, and 41st in breakaway run rate. That didn't stop him from being an RB1 last year, and it likely won't this season.
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46.
C.J. Stroud
QB - (at TEN)
Stroud proved all the haters wrong quickly. I'm old enough to remember people slighting this person because of S2 scores. If you faded those and narratives around this talented, franchise-changing player, you were loving the entire 2023 season. Stroud balled out, ranking seventh in fantasy points per game. There was plenty to like about his deeper numbers surrounding his play as he ranked third in clean pocket passer rating, 11th in fantasy points per dropback, and had the sixth-lowest turnover rate. With a solidified offensive line keeping him clean and the team bringing in Joe Mixon and Stefon Diggs to help the scoring barrage, Stroud is primed for a special sophomore campaign that could vault him into the top 3-5 fantasy quarterbacks in 2024.
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47.
Tank Dell
WR - (at TEN)
Yes, Dell now has to contend with Stefon Diggs for targets, too, but we need to put respect on Dell's name and understand that he could still fight for the team lead in targets in 2024. Last year, in the seven full games that Dell and Nico Collins played together, Dell bested him in every meaningful category. Dell led the duo in target share (22.5 vs. 22.1%), air-yard share (35.9 vs. 25.3%), weighted opportunity (59.0 vs. 50.9), and fantasy points per game (18.7 vs. 18.1). Overall last year Dell posted monster numbers in YPRR (2.40) and FD/RR (0.115) ranking 16th and 14th in these statistics. His recovery from a broken fibula will be huge, but if he is still the same guy we saw in 2023, there's plenty of reason to invest heavily in him smashing in 2024.
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49.
Stefon Diggs
WR - (at TEN)
Stefon Diggs faced a challenging 2023 season, finishing as WR10 overall but averaging just 13 points per game, landing him as WR15 in half-point scoring. His performance waned significantly from Week 10 onwards, averaging a mere 7.3 points and 42 receiving yards per game. Despite maintaining a near 30% target share and accumulating over 1,800 air yards for the season, Diggs struggled to deliver consistent fantasy production. With uncertainty surrounding his role in the Texans' offense and competition from Tank Dell and Nico Collins, fantasy managers may approach Diggs with caution entering his age 31 season.
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116.
Dalton Schultz
TE - (at TEN)
Dalton Schultz hasn't been able to recapture the glory of his 2021 season, when he had a career-high 808 yards and eight touchdowns to finish as the fantasy TE3, but he's been a decent fantasy performer over the last two years. Schultz had 57-577-5 in 2022 and 59-635-5 in 2023, finishing TE10 and TE11 in PPR fantasy scoring in those two seasons. Schultz re-signed with the Texans in the offseason, so he'll continue to play with impressive young QB C.J. Stroud. The problem is that Houston traded for WR Stefon Diggs in the offseason, so Schultz will likely be No. 4 in the target pecking order behind Diggs, Nico Collins and Tank Dell, limiting his top-end fantasy potential.
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179.
Dameon Pierce
RB - (at TEN)
The expectations for Dameon Pierce to follow his stellar rookie season with a bang were palpable last summer. Sadly, that's now how Pierce's sophomore season panned out. In Weeks 1-8, he averaged 16.9 touches, producing only 58.7 total yards. He was running behind an offensive line that was beaten up and struggling in those first seven games as Houston ranked dead last in adjusted yards before contact per attempt (Weeks 9-18, 12th-best). Pierce sprained his ankle in Week 9, and when he returned from injury, he found himself replaced by Devin Singletary as the starter. With Joe Mixon in town, Pierce's hopes of reclaiming the starting role have essentially been snuffed out. He falls into middling handcuff status for 2024.
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209.
Houston Texans
DST - (at TEN)
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216.
Ka'imi Fairbairn
K - (at TEN)
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281.
Noah Brown
WR - (at TEN)
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304.
Robert Woods
WR - (at TEN)
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342.
John Metchie III
WR - (at TEN)
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361.
Brevin Jordan
TE - (at TEN)
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376.
Cade Stover
TE - (at TEN)
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395.
Xavier Hutchinson
WR - (at TEN)
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412.
Jawhar Jordan
RB - (at TEN)
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