• Garrett Wilson and Tank Dell shine while other receivers sat out: The Houston Texans were down Nico Collins and Stefon Diggs, while the New York Jets were down Allen Lazard and Davante Adams by the end of the game. The remaining starters gained 210 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

• Houston Texans rely heavily on Joe Mixon: In every game Mixon has played outside of when he was injured or returned from injury, he’s carried the ball at least 24 times.

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

PFF’s fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024.

Houston Texans @ New York Jets

Tank Dell steps into WR1 role: Stefon Diggs landed on injured reserve earlier in the week due top a season-ending ACL tear, and Nico Collins remains on injured reserve due to a hamstring injury.

Dell was C.J. Stroud’s clear favorite target with the other two wide receivers out, catching four passes for 70 yards. The Texans were consistently rotating wide receivers every play. Xavier Hutchinson tended to play the X receiver spot regardless of personnel grouping, Dell played the Z spot in 11 personnel as usual, John Metchie III played in the slot, and Robert Woods played the Z in 12 personnel. While those were the tendencies, everyone was used significantly in both personnel groupings in multiple positions.

This only led to Dell playing slightly more snaps, as they still prefer not to have a 5-foot-8, 165-pound receiver on the majority of run plays. 

The reports on Collins’ recovery have generally been positive. Once he can return, we can expect him to take most of the snaps from Hutchinson in the X-receiver role, leaving Hutchinson just to be Collins’ backup. We can largely expect Dell, Metchie III and Woods’ roles to continue like this for the rest of the season unless the Texans can pull off a trade before Tuesday’s trade deadline.

Jets change their slot receiver: With Allen Lazard on injured reserve, the Jets changed their slot wide receiver rotation.

The Jets wide receiver room already received bad news before the game, as Allen Lazard landed on injured reserve due to a chest injury. For the second straight week, Mike Williams was the clear third receiver in three-receiver sets, while Xavier Gipson and Malachi Corley occasionally mixed in. 

Lazard had been the Jets’ primary slot receiver before his injury. Adams and Garrett Wilson both played more slot snaps last week. Williams spent 83% of his snaps lined up outside over 2022-2023, but in this game, he recorded the most routes from the slot over the first three quarters with 10, followed by Adams’ nine and Wilson’s six.

Adams spent most of the fourth quarter being evaluated for a concussion in the locker room. He was able to return late in the fourth quarter. While Adams was out, Williams became an every-down receiver while Gipson consistently played in three-receiver sets. Williams continued to be the primary slot receiver. Considering how much Rodgers has thrown to slot receivers in his career, this could increase Williams’ chances of having fantasy value at some point this season.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Texans backup running back Dameon Pierce was inactive due to a groin injury. J.J. Taylor was signed to the active roster on Wednesday to give the Texans a third running back.
• Texans lead tight end Dalton Schultz only played around two-thirds of the Texans’ offensive snaps for a second straight week after playing 95%-plus of the snaps multiple times earlier in the season. Teagan Quitoriano took around half of the 12 personnel snaps away from Schultz, while Cade Stover also took some 11 personnel snaps from him.
• Braelon Allen has replaced Breece Hall as the Jets’ primary short-yardage back. From Weeks 1-7, Allen played 39% of the snaps when the Jets needed 1-2 yards for a first down. In the last two weeks, he’s played 73% of those short-yardage plays.
• The Jets activated tight end Kenny Yeboah from injured reserve and released Anthony Firkser in a corresponding move. Yeboah served as the third tight end for New York Thursday night. He played 206 offensive snaps from 2021-2023 as a backup tight end for New York.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.
• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.
• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.