‘Quarterback’s Best Friend’: How John Metchie III Fits Texans Offense

When the Houston Texans selected John Metchie III this past April in the second round of the Draft, he was seen as a potential fit next to Brandin Cooks and Nico Collins.

If Cooks is the speed demon who’s a consistent threat for a big-play and Collins is the big-bodied receiver who plays with physicality, power, makes contested catches and acts like the possession receiver, Metchie is the advanced technician who takes advantage of his route running skills and mismatches from the slot to gain chunks of yards in the middle of the field.

Metchie tore his ACL this past December, but he was present at rookie minicamp and he expects to be a full-go for training camp targeting his return on the field for the Texans season opener against the Colts.

Metchie’s play style allows him to quickly become the quarterback’s best friend due to his consistency.

At Alabama, the Canadian receiver has been lethal from the slot: he can run an expanded route tree and impact the passing game at all three levels of the field, even though his main impact comes from short and intermediate routes. The Crimson Tide did a good job of taking advantage of mismatches from the slot to take advantage of Metchie’s ability to separate. Despite he doesn’t have top-tier speed for a pass catcher of his size, Metchie is effective at creating yards after the catch.

Here’s a prime example of that as Metchie receives a short pass, breaks a tackle and then goes all the way for the touchdown.

As he recovers from the injury and aims at quickly regaining his form, Metchie will be an extremely useful chess piece for the Texans, as they’ll be able to move him around the formation to find favorable matchups while taking advantage of his reliability and ability to get open to move the chains.