Tape Tells All: The Houston Texans Week 1 Performance

Welcome to a new season of Tape Tells All, the weekly series where I look at film for something that happened in the NFL this week.

Usually, I focus on one player. This week, I'm focusing on a whole team, because that team did some very surprising things.

Let's talk about the Houston Texans and what happened with the team in Week 1. Is any of it sustainable? Is there fantasy value in Houston that we weren't expecting? Let's investigate.

• Quarterback fantasy football rankings
• Running back fantasy football rankings
• Wide receiver fantasy football rankings
• Tight end fantasy football rankings
• Kicker fantasy football rankings
• FLEX fantasy football rankings
• Defense (D/ST) fantasy football rankings
• Superflex fantasy football rankings
• IDP fantasy football rankings
• Dynasty fantasy football rankings

Background Information

The Houston Texans were not supposed to be good this year -- and there's still plenty of time for them to be not good. But at least on the first Sunday of the NFL season, the Texans had a strong showing, beating the Jaguars -- who are also supposed to be bad, for the record -- 37-21.

But this is a fantasy site. We don't necessarily care if the Texans win games -- we care if Texans players can help us win fantasy games.

And one week in, Texans players are! Based on half-PPR scoring, here are the current rankings for Houston players:

• Tyrod Taylor: QB11
• Mark Ingram II: RB17
• David Johnson: RB24
• Phillip Lindsay: RB34
• Brandin Cooks: WR22
• Danny Amendola: WR35
• Pharaoh Brown: TE13

So, is the Texans offense actually decent for fantasy purposes? Or was this first week just a mirage?

The Game Tape

To figure this out, let's take a look at some plays from this game and see what we're seeing from the Texans.

Tyrod Taylor

There are a lot of players to write about this week, so I'm picking one representative play for Tyrod Taylor and it's this one:

This play shows all the reasons I'm excited about Taylor...and one of the reasons I'm worried about him.

Let's start with the good. Taylor shows off his elusiveness in this clip. The NFL has become a mobile quarterback's league and Taylor is a mobile quarterback. On this play, the Jaguars have a rusher come unblocked right for the pocket. This is where someone without Taylor's speed would probably just go down, but he recognizes the blitz, steps up to avoid the initial hit, then does a little backwards stutter step to free up space. He dances past another attempted tackle, gets outside, and just has a ton of space to make a throw.

And that throw -- ooh boy, it's a nice one. Sharp. Deep. Accurate. Taylor sees Brandin Cooks down the field and just fires an absolute dime, reminding us that he can make these kinds of big throws. And despite the Jags having some decent coverage down there, Taylor's pass hits Cooks right in the chest, getting the Texans down the field in a hurry.

The problem? That offensive line let Jacksonville get pressure fast. In Week 1, Houston was tied for the least time that its quarterback had in the pocket and allowed the fifth-most hurries. Taylor is going to be forced to move around a lot, and it's always easier to throw an accurate pass when you're given time to throw an accurate pass.

Mark Ingram

Ingram was the biggest surprise of all. Plenty of people expected he was going to just be a depth signing or even just a camp body for Houston. Instead, he was the starting running back.

Ingram's 36 snaps led Houston's running backs, even though the snap share was just 46 percent. He had 26 carries for 85 yards and this touchdown:

And, well...it's a touchdown. Ingram still has good vision and can make plays in short-yardage situations, but his longest run was 11 yards and he was targeted once. He's getting the red zone usage, so that's good, but I'm not sure what else to think about Ingram. The tape on him is fine. Just...fine.

David Johnson

The surprise of this game was that David Johnson had three carries. He was targeted four times, catching three passes for 18 yards and a touchdown, but without that touchdown, this game would have been a disaster for Johnson.

Even the touchdown was boring. Johnson runs out into the flat. No defender picks him up. Taylor throws him the ball. He stumbles a little, but manages to get into the end zone.

And that was the best of Johnson? Ehh.

Phillip Lindsay

Yeah, we're skipping Lindsay. He was on the field for 20 snaps and had eight carries to Ingram's 26. He was targeted once. So while he had a touchdown, his right now seems pretty clear and that role isn't one that leads to consistent fantasy relevance.

Brandin Cooks

Honestly, just scroll up and watch the long Cooks catch from the Tyrod section. Cooks is the guy in Houston whose performance wasn't really a surprise, as he was expected to be the No. 1 receiver on this team and he delivered.

Danny Amendola

Danny Amendola was only on the field for 22 percent of Houston's snaps, putting him worth at wide receiver. And with Anthony Miller expected to play next week, the path for snaps for Amendola remains crowded.

But also, look at this:

Amendola had like no experience with this team, but he a lot of NFL experience. He's a good route runner who crosses the field here, finds a soft spot over the middle, and serves as a safety valve for Taylor. And then once he catches this ball, he takes a good path with his RAC, getting into the end zone.

So, this is still a guy who can make some plays in short yardage. Houston was playing a lot of Chris Conley in this game, but maybe they can consider not doing that?

Pharaoh Brown

Tight end is a wasteland, so when a player makes a play like this, it's hard to not take note:

or this one

But really, I think both of these plays tell me more about Tyrod Taylor's ability to adjust to pressure and to get the ball out than they tell me anything about Brown. They were good catches and Brown played 76 percent of Houston's plays, but coming into this game, the 27-year-old had 16 career receptions. He had been targeted 19 times ever, and then was targeted five times last game.

This was a good showing. Let's not take away from that. But do I think this means that Brown is a borderline TE1 play now? Well...I guess you need to read on to the "Fantasy Impact" section.

Fantasy Impact

Alright, so let's talk fantasy.

As good as Houston looked, I don't think there's a lot that changes here.

Tyrod Taylor is a solid QB, but playing behind this line and playing without a go-to second receiver, he's going to be a QB2 most weeks. Sunday proved that there's more upside than we initially thought, so there's that -- he goes from being a low-end QB2 to being more of that mid-tier QB2. In two-QB leagues, he'll be valuable, but I already could have told you he'd be valuable.

At running back, Houston still has a mess, despite what Ingram did.

The reason? Houston's defense won't play this well every game -- teams are going to score against the Texans, which will change the game script for Houston. Ingram won't be able to touch the ball 25-plus times on a weekly basis, which is going to really limit his ceiling. He's a touchdown-dependent RB2 who is going to deliver a lot of RB3/4 weeks. He's playable, which is something we didn't know before this week, but he'll be inconsistent.

David Johnson should see more touches in games where Houston is trailing because he'll get passing-down work, but even after his RB24 finish this week, I'm lower on him than I was by a good bit. Johnson isn't passing the eye test. He's what...an RB3 with limited upside? An RB4?

Brandin Cooks entered the season as a WR3. He's closer to a WR2 now.

Pharaoh Brown is rosterable, which is something he wasn't before Week 1. But he's rosterable as a TE2 who could maybe grow into a larger role. You should also be willing to drop him at any moment.

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