The Dynasty Fantasy Football Impact of Tank Dell’s Injury
Every year brings us some surprises from the rookie class. Players like Isiah Pacheco and Jaylen Warren come to mind from the past couple of years. This season brought us two amazing young receivers in Puka Nacua and Tank Dell, both of whom are looking like they should have been taken in the top half of rookie drafts this off-season, despite being little more than late round fliers last Spring. This is what makes dynasty fantasy football so much fun (or frustrating). Despite all the work by the NFL and dynasty managers, we all simply got it wrong with these two. Unfortunately, both have dealt have also dealt with injuries this season and Dell suffered the most significant one on Sunday – a broken fibula. He’ll reportedly be placed on IR and miss at least the rest of the regular season. His loss is going to rock some values around dynasty leagues. Let’s re-assess.
Tank Dell, WR HOU
Dell had his leg rolled up on a goal line touchdown carry by Dameon Pierce early in the game. He stayed down as the rest of the Texans celebrated as the mood in the stadium went from excitement to concern in a hurry. After being carted to the locker room, it was suspected he had a broken fibula and X-rays confirmed it. His rookie season will end with 47 catches for 709 yards and seven touchdowns in ten games. It’s a massive blow to dynasty managers who were counting on Dell as a WR1 the rest of the way. On the plus side, it’s not a torn ACL or Achilles injury that could threaten his availability for the beginning of next season. In fact, there’s some talk he could actually play again this year should the Texans make a playoff run. Still, that’s little consolation to dynasty managers and we’re a long way out from even thinking about his return.
Dell is going to be an interesting player to rank this off-season and much of it is going to depend on just what Nico Collins does the rest of the way. If Collins dominates, it could dampen some excitement with Dell. Still, it’s hard to see him not being in the top 24 when all is said and done this off-season. After all, this is a player who posted 19.9 or more fantasy points in half of his ten games, including three games with more than 25.
CJ Stroud, QB HOU
At this point, Stroud seems pretty bulletproof. While losing Dell the rest of the way won’t help his cause, Stroud has proven to be a “set it and forget it” QB1 and one of the most coveted assets at the position in all of dynasty leagues. Few people believed he could actually post more than 3,500 passing yards and 20 touchdowns this season. He’s done that already and we have five games to go. To make matters even more impressive, Stroud has the Texans sitting at 7-5 and right in the thick of a playoff chase. His value has and will be solidified as that of an elite-level fantasy performer.
Nico Collins, WR HOU
Here we go. As good as Dell has been, Collins is right there with him. He’s emerged as a big-time threat and already has 59 catches for 991 yards and six touchdowns and just like Stroud, he has five games to play. Collins was awesome yesterday with nine catches for 191 yards and a touchdown after Dell went down. Things are going to get tougher now that he’ll have all the attention from the defense but make no mistake, this is a monster opportunity for him. Every year brings us a surprise fantasy performer who tips the balance of power in the playoffs and Collins has a chance to do just that and solidify no worse than WR2 status going into next year.
Noah Brown, WR HOU
It’s been a weird season for Brown thus far. He has 70.8 fantasy points on the season and 51.5 of those came in weeks nine and ten. Losing Dell yesterday should have opened the door for Brown to emerge and play a big role. Unfortunately, he still only had two targets and didn’t catch either as he battled for snaps with John Metchie. This is going to be a story to watch over the next couple of weeks. If Brown stays ahead of Metchie in the pecking order, there could be some real value. If he can’t, we’re going to see some up and down performances coming our way.
Other Houston Receivers
The rest of the depth chart consists of Robert Woods, Metchie and Xavier Hutchinson, among others. The most intriguing player here is clearly Metchie, who was once a highly thought of prospect from Alabama and dealt with some serious health issues over the past year. This could really be the opening he needs. Woods seems like a player who should benefit but we just haven’t seen much from him at all this year and it seems the Texans are content with their youth movement. We’ll see in the next few weeks if that’s the case.
Dalton Schultz and Brevin Jordan, TEs HOU
Many will think the loss of Dell will automatically mean more targets for Schultz. Color me skeptical. The snap count for him went down when Jordan came back from injury and that’s a bigger issue at the moment. I honestly don’t think the loss of Dell means much for either of these two who are battling each other for snaps and targets more than the receivers.
Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK
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