Stefon Diggs Out for the Season: Fantasy Football Impact on C.J. Stroud, Tank Dell, Nico Collins, Joe Mixon, Dalton Schultz and More
Analyzing the Texans' offense after Stefon Diggs was lost for the season because of an injury.
Another major NFL injury happened over the weekend, with Houston Texans wideout Stefon Diggs tearing his ACL. He is out for the remainder of the season.
Let’s take a look at what Diggs has done this season, and then look at the offensive fantasy players who could take on larger roles with Diggs out.
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Diggs’ Production
In the eight games he got in, Diggs had 496 yards and three touchdowns on 47 catches and 64 targets. He’s added a touchdown and eight yards on three rushing attempts.
He had at least four catches and six targets in each game this season. Diggs had at least 20 yards in every game, with five games between 50-100 yards.
His production was especially helpful these past several weeks with Nico Collins out with a hamstring injury, and Diggs will certainly be missed by the offense and a team hoping to compete for a Super Bowl.
Pass Catchers Who Could Step Up
Collins has played in five games this season. He was the clear top wideout for the team, with 567 yards and three touchdowns on 32 receptions and 45 targets. He is eligible to return from injured reserve in week 10.
Tank Dell is third on the team with 229 yards. He also has two touchdowns on 24 grabs and 38 targets, while adding 30 rushing yards on six attempts across seven games. He should serve as the team’s No. 1 wideout in week 9. We’ll discuss the Thursday night matchup in another story later today, so check back for that.
Tight end Dalton Schultz has 223 yards, but no scores, on 23 catches and 38 targets this season. He’s taken a bit of a backseat with Diggs’ arrival to the team, but without him around the rest of the season, I’d expect Schultz to be more involved going forward.
Backup tight end Cade Stover is the next non-RB in receiving yards, sitting with just 85 on seven catches and nine catches. He’s only played 35% of the team’s offensive snaps this season, and while that percentage might rise a bit now, he’s unlikely to be heavily involved.
Xavier Hutchinson has played in eight games, but has only 64 yards on five receptions and 10 targets. He’s played 38% of the offensive snaps.
Robert Woods has appeared in six games, making five catches on seven targets for 46 yards. He’s played just 30% of the team’s snaps.
John Metchie has played in five games, and has just 36 yards on four grabs and five targets. He’s been on the field for just 23% of the offensive snaps.
In week 8, Dell led the pass catchers with 53 snaps played. Expect him to play the most in week 9 and likely be the most-targeted wide receiver or tight end.
Schultz was on the field for 47 snaps. He had success in this offense last season, and will probably see the biggest uptick in production among a wideout or tight end.
Hutchinson was on the field for 44 snaps. Stover played 34 snaps, while Robert Woods was on for 24 snaps. Teagan Quitoriano, the team’s third tight end, played 24 snaps as well, while Metchie was at 20 snaps.
The snap counts are what I’d use to locate the best fantasy options for week 9. It is worth noting that Metchie had four targets across his 20 snaps, while Stover had three, Woods two and Hutchinson just one. We’ll go a bit more in depth into the best fantasy options for week 9 in the Thursday preview, so check back for that.
Other Fantasy Outlooks
Joe Mixon has dominated the backfield since returning from an early-season injury. He played 54 snaps last week, while Dare Ogunbowale got 13 snaps and Dameon Pierce played four snaps.
The injury to Diggs will probably put a little more emphasis on the Texans’ run game, although opposing defenses should be able to stack the box a bit more, at least until Collins returns.
Mixon was a must-start fantasy player before the Diggs’ injury, and this should just give fantasy owners more confidence to play Mixon.
Ogunbowale and Pierce are just deep, deep league options, but really just handcuffs at this point. It’ll take an injury to Mixon for either backup RB to really get more involved offensively.
Quarterback C.J. Stroud hasn’t taken the big leap forward that many of us expected this season, but he’s still been good, and a solid fantasy performer.
Not having Collins around slowed Stroud, and being down Diggs will also be a blow to his fantasy outlook. He’s still talented enough to produce solid numbers, and if he can get Collins back in week 10, there’s really no long-term worries for Stroud.
Temper your expectations with Stroud in week 9, but he should be a pretty easy start option when Collins returns.
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