Which Houston Pass Catchers Could Be On The Move?

Well, it seems that the rumor mill isn't going to stop anytime soon.

Aaron Reiss of The Athletic made a case for Kenny Stills being a candidate for a trade or possible release in his mailbag on Wednesday. The major reasoning behind this was the trade for Brandin Cooks and the signing of Randall Cobb. That pair is under contract for multiple seasons and are locks to make the team.

Another contributing factor is that Houston already has enough deep threats on the roster. With Stills entering the last year of his deal, he could be expendable. Additionally, with Will Fuller V transforming the offense when healthy, the Texans could prefer to sign him to an extension to pair him with Cooks.

Honestly, I’m not sure if I see a Stills trade happening. A lot of capital was invested to get Tunsil and Stills here. BOB said as much when he mentioned the trade. The cap hit for Stills’ contract this season is $7 million, which is a bit high for a potential backup. However, the injury history of the players who comprise the Texans’ wide receiver rooms makes it reasonable to believe that Stills will see significant snaps at some point.

Now if there were a Texans wideout on the bubble who would be ripe for a change of scenery, it'd be Keke Coutee. Who knows what he did to end up in BOB’s famed doghouse, but he’s in there. Coutee’s hamstring injury history doesn’t help things much either. The 2019 season saw him tumble down the depth chart, eventually getting benched when Fuller V returned for Week 15. The Texans may look at a late-round rookie in next week’s draft to provide depth and make Coutee expendable. That said, the Houston Texans should be targeting defense early and often during the 2020 NFL Draft. Maybe the team will take a flyer on a receiver in the later rounds. This class is regarded as exceptionally deep at that position, so maybe we can strike gold. The franchise’s history outside of the first round might say otherwise.

Something is probably going to happen to this current lineup. The list of pass catchers on the roster is long. David Johnson, Duke Johnson, Jordan Akins, Jordan Thomas, Darren Fells, Kahale Warring, Randall Cobb, Will Fuller, Keke Coutee, DeAndre Carter, Kenny Stills, and Brandin Cooks all will look to turn targets into receptions from Deshaun Watson whenever football starts again. That’s a lot of mouths to feed and there’s only one chef.