May 31, 2023

Houston Texans tight end Dalton Schultz enters 2023 as a low-end TE1 play, albeit one with the upside to finish closer to TE6 overall or so if the new-look Texans offense clicks. Schultz comes to Houston from Dallas, where he spent his first five seasons with the Cowboys. His best year was 2021 when he saw 104 targets and turned them into 78 catches for 808 yards and eight touchdowns. There was some regression last year, as his catch rate dropped from 75.0% in 2021 to 64.0% in 2022, and he finished with 577 yards and five touchdowns. But there's some reason to believe 2023 can look more like 2021 for Schultz. The Texans will likely be starting rookie C.J. Stroud at quarterback, and there are question marks all along the receiving corps for this team, which could mean that Schultz ends up seeing a fairly sizable workload and ends up surpassing 100 targets for the second time in his career. It also helps that the team's offensive coordinator comes over from the 49ers, an offense that heavily featured the tight end. Schultz isn't the physical mismatch that George Kittle is for San Francisco, but he's got good hands and a big frame, so the Texans should use him heavily. Still, the overall concerns about this offense and the fact that the quarterback is unproven means that it's fair to temper expectations some and to draft Schultz somewhere between TE8 and TE11, depending on how comfortable you are betting on the Texans offense to improve.--Justin Carter - RotoBaller