2018 Fantasy Football Houston Texans Preview

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Next up in our team preview series are the Houston Texans. Enjoy!

With Deshaun Watson, the Houston Texans were the most electric team in the NFL. Outside of a game, Watson didn't start and a bad game only three days after his first NFL start, the Houston Texans put up 195 points in five games before Watson tore his ACL.

That's good, right? Yeah, it's 39 points per game. So, considering Watson missed over half the season, it's unreasonable to use any statistics from last year to judge the Texans' offense coming into this year. All we know is that they're really, really good.

Oh, and on defense? They get JJ Watt and Whitney Mercillus back from injury, Brian Cushing back from suspension, and they added Tyrann Mathieu. Watch out for this Houston team.

2018 Fantasy Football Houston Texans Preview

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Quarterbacks

Deshaun Watson led the league in #BigTimeThrow percentage last season@PFF pic.twitter.com/NDZjSJhpLq

— Steve Palazzolo (@PFF_Steve) June 4, 2018

• Deshaun Watson
• Brandon Weeden

Deshaun Watson is a polarizing figure. He has the highest average draft position for dynasty fantasy football of any quarterback, but Pro Football Focus determined that fellow rookie Mitchell Trubisky was actually a better passer than Watson last year.

Watson made a high number of risk-reward throws last year, and a historically high number of those throws ended up going in Watson's favor. Either way, Watson had one of the greatest 5-game stretches of any quarterback in the history of the NFL and that cannot be ignored.

Deshaun Watson is undeniably a very good quarterback, but in an extremely talented NFL, I'm not quite ready to group him in the "elites" with guys like Aaron Rodgers. Regardless, Watson, surrounded by strong weapons, will lead Houston to another productive season on offense in 2018.

Running Backs

Lamar Miller hasn't dropped a pass over the past two seasons pic.twitter.com/LYr9fA6Wxn

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) December 9, 2017

• Lamar Miller
• D'Onta Foreman
• Jay Prosch

After D'Onta Foreman outperformed him last year, Lamar Miller could be in trouble in Houston. Jay Prosch will be the lead fullback for the Texans.

Lamar Miller hasn't found his mojo yet in Houston. So far, he's rushed for about 3.9 yards per carry, which is below the goal for running backs, 4.0. He's only had eight touchdowns in two seasons with the Texans.

However, he's being undervalued in fantasy football. This is a guy averaging over 250 carries per season in Houston, and he's being drafted between Royce Freeman and Ronald Jones II, two rookies. Miller is better than that. He won't be incredible, but he's a good value pick in fantasy.

D'Onta Foreman rushed 78 times last year for 327 yards per carry, 4.2 yards per carry. Better than Miller. Unfortunately, he suffered one of the worst injuries imaginable last year. He tore his Achilles, which typically happens to older athletes. Many of them do not return from the injury or are significantly worse if they do come back.

It has been reported that the Texans loved what they saw from Foreman in minicamp. The battle between Miller and Foreman will be something to keep an eye on in training camp.

Wide Receivers

DeAndre Hopkins is featured on the 2017 PFF All-Pro Team

Check out the rest of the first and second team:https://t.co/VntToNLvml pic.twitter.com/lscF2XKdYN

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) January 6, 2018

• LWR: DeAndre Hopkins
• RWR: Will Fuller
• SWR: Braxton Miller

DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller have punched their tickets to the top 2 receiver spots in Houston's offense. It will be a battle between Bruce Ellington, Braxton Miller, and Keke Coutee for the slot position. It's Miller's job to lose.

DeAndre Hopkins is my No. 1 receiver for dynasty football. What's not to like? He's 25, can produce with bad quarterbacks, but has a good one in Deshaun Watson. He caught seven touchdowns in seven weeks with Deshaun Watson and caught 45 passes.

Hopkins tacked on a ton of yards, too. He had 224 yards Week 8 against the Seattle Seahawks! Even without Watson, Hopkins was still scoring big fantasy points. His final stat line was 96/1378/13. Hopkins is a very safe first round pick.

The connection between Will Fuller and Deshaun Watson was something to behold. Fuller has a 4.32 40 and burned too many defenders to count with Watson at QB. Fuller missed the first three weeks of the season and caught only 13 passes with Watson. The incredible part is that he turned seven of those passes into touchdowns! Obviously, Fuller won't repeat that efficiency this year. However, he will most likely receive more targets and get some consistency worked into his game. Fuller can easily crack the top-15 wide receivers this year.

Tight Ends

NEW: Texans Likely To Lean On Ryan Griffin At Tight End https://t.co/JyrfFvcuqc

— RotoBaller NFL (@RotoBallerNFL) July 3, 2018

• Ryan Griffin
• Stephen Anderson

As mentioned above, it appears as though Ryan Griffin will be Houston's main tight end heading into 2018. Stephen Anderson had a few weeks where he was receiving a good amount of targets and did pretty well, so maybe he can take Griffin's spot.

Ryan Griffin is a pretty average player. He had two concussions last year, which explains why he barely had any receptions last year. He's not too bad, but in no way would he breakout for a big season.

I'm much more interested in Stephen Anderson. If Anderson was on the field last year, he was running a route. Anderson ran a route on 73% of the plays he was involved in last year. The highlight of his year last year was when he caught five balls for 73 yards and a touchdown Week 13 against the Tennessee Titans. Of the two options, Anderson has much more upside.

Final Verdict

The Houston Texans have a talented offense and will have a good year. They won't match the pace they were on last year with Watson, but they will be one of the better groups in the NFL. As for the playoffs, they have tough division competition with Tennessee and Jacksonville. However, they have the tools to do it.

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Visit the F6P Fantasy Football Draft Kit Page for more advice to prepare for the 2018 season.

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