The Worth of Things: Assessing the tight ends for the Houston Texans

Who is the Texans’ most appropriate choice to return?

We should begin as usual with a brief programming comment. There are two key reasons I haven’t discussed rookies and free agents. First off, the draft takes place in April and free agency occurs in March according to the official NFL schedule. We’re starting with the cart rather than the horse. Speculating about who would be a better match in free agency is pointless because most of the available players will either be franchised or re-signed.

The second rationale is more deliberate and self-centered. We must make room. We won’t have anything to speak about later on if we waste our time discussing potential free agents. It is also sensible, though, since before discussing who we ought to acquire, we should first assess what we already have.

The requirement for tight ends to both block and catch passes during the passing game makes them special. While blocking by wide receivers is certainly advantageous, tight ends are far more dependent on it. Thus, in addition to examining the targets, catches, yards, touchdowns, catch percentage, and yards per target that we examined for receivers, we will also examine their PFF grades for run and pass blocking. If your score is between 60 and 69, you are a rotational player. A score of 70 or above indicates that you are a beginning-level player.

Schultz has a 6.5 million cap number remaining and is a free agency. He was undoubtedly a superb signing since he turned in the same sort of performances as he did in Dallas. But if he is expected to make nine to ten million dollars a year, it is time to assess if he is that kind of tight end. The grades for pass and run blocking are not very good. They’re also not that bad. It will be necessary to evaluate him against the other males that are accessible on the open market and decide whether investing in him is something you want to do. Although 75–80 million dollars can buy you a lot, it can’t satisfy all of your desires.

This brings us to the $64,000 query. It begs the question of whether a player with the kind of flashiness that Jordan possesses can produce at the same level when given more opportunities. On the site, we’ve dubbed him Mr. December as it seems like he catches passes in December. However, he also did it in the wild card game. Regardless, he will be here, but it’s unclear how significant a part he will play.

And thus we arrive at the $64,000 question. It raises the issue of whether a player with Jordan’s degree of flashiness could perform at the same level if given more chances. We’ve called him Mr. December on the web since it appears that he gets passes in December. He did it in the wild card game as well, though. He will be here, for sure, but it’s unclear what role he will play that matters.