Pro Football Rumors
The Texans have made some changes to their wide receiver room since Tank Dell last played. The team used Day 2 picks to add Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel last year, and Nico Collins has since received a raise. Houston’s pass-catching group is heading toward having player back, however.
Dell is moving into position for a return. While he was not full go during the Texans’ offseason program, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson notes the team hopes he can “ramp up” his participation by training camp. Dell resumed running and cutting during Texans OTAs, per Wilson, who adds the fourth-year wideout did drills against Texans starting defenders. Tell (via Wilson) called himself “ready” when asked about an expected return.
A spate of knee injuries — ACL, MCL, LCL tears to go with a dislocation — sidetracked Dell’s career in Week 16 of the 2024 season. He missed all of last year, residing on the reserve/PUP list throughout, though Wilson adds Dell made an attempt to return late in Houston’s 2025 season — one that produced a third straight trip to the divisional round. Considering Dell is not yet operating at full speed, that comeback bid certainly qualified as unrealistic.
“I was making a push; I wanted to be out there with the guys,” Dell said. “Last year, that football season alone, was the hardest year of my life. Just sitting out of football for a year straight.”
While Dell has shown flashes of explosiveness since being drafted in the 2023 third round, injuries have hounded him. A fibula fracture ended his 2023 season that December, and a gunshot wound occurred deemed minor occurred months later. Dell returned for Texans training camp in 2024 but saw his career again paused by the knee injuries sustained during a touchdown reception at Arrowhead Stadium. Dell returned for work at the outset of the Texans’ offseason program this year and will hope a bounce-back contract year can put him back on the map.
Dell’s history makes him far from a safe bet, but the Texans could have a chance to roll out a Collins-Dell-Higgins-Noel quartet to go with Dalton Schultz as C.J. Stroud joins Dell in entering a pivotal season. A 2026 extension is far from a certainty for Stroud, who recently made the case he deserves one. Stroud has not built on his Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign, but the Texans exercised his fifth-year option. Stroud having Dell at his disposal once again will certainly help his prospects at securing a monster extension before his rookie deal expires.
Dell, 26, caught 47 passes for 709 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie alongside Collins. The 5-foot-10 playmaker then amassed 667 yards on 51 catches in 2024, scoring three touchdowns. Schultz worked as Stroud’s second option in 2025, though Higgins and Noel held tertiary roles as rookies. Higgins totaled 525 receiving yards and six touchdowns, while Noel posted 292 and two scores. Xavier Hutchinson, who operated behind Dell in Houston’s pecking order previously, caught 35...
