Houston Texans: Will Fuller doesn’t need to be drowned in expectations
Because the Houston Texans drafted him ahead of Josh Doctson and Laquon Treadwell, their new No. 2 wide receiver Will Fuller will forever be compared to those two.
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These comparisons, of course, are inherently unfair, because while I did rank both of those receivers ahead of Will Fuller before the draft started, post facto analysis of draft picks is unfair. Not only is it a disservice to the players themselves, but they also shroud our judgment of an individual’s body of work in the NFL while simultaneously failing to examine the team’s rationale and philosophy.
I’ve never considered myself a huge fan of Fuller’s game, but even I can see the logic behind the decision to draft him. One knock on Fuller is that he isn’t a true No. 1 wide receiver, whereas Doctson and Treadwell fit that prototype with their size and strength on the outside.
The problem with holding this over Fuller is that the Texans aren’t looking for a true No. 1 wide receiver. Since they have one of the game’s best in DeAndre Hopkins, who is a 100-catch receiver and elite at the catch point, Fuller was drafted to be the perfect complementary piece. You can see that by drafting Fuller, Braxton Miller, and small-school running back Tyler Ervin, the Texans showed that they were serious about adding more speed on offense.
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See, the main knock on the Texans offense, aside from the fact that they had no quarterback before aggressively adding Brock Osweiler to the fold, was that it lacked playmakers outside of “Nuk”. You can’t ask one player to win games for you, and after adding Lamar Miller, Fuller, Miller, and Ervin this offseason, the Texans have given their newly minted quarterback multiple options.
All three rookie draft picks have speed and explosiveness in common, but all three of them win in different ways. Throw in Hopkins and Miller, and you’ll see that the Texans have built a multi-faceted attack. Hopkins is their bread-winner as the No. 1 receiver, Miller is the workhorse RB, Ervin is the change-of-pace guy, Miller is the slot-type “gadget” receiver, Jaelen Strong is a situational red zone weapon, and Fuller is the classic DeSean Jackson-esque deep threat.
If the Texans didn’t draft Fuller, they could have added Doctson, and he would have been more than capable of stretching the field deep. However, if you ask virtually anybody who the best pure deep threat in this class is, they would go with Fuller. Sure, Kolby Listenbee is faster, but you wouldn’t find very many people touting him over Fuller.
His drops and catching technique are problematic, but even if Fuller can’t fix them, nobody should look at them as a deal-breaker. First of all, drops are overrated. Mike Evans, Amari Cooper, and Julian Edelman are three wide receivers who drop their fair share of passes, and yet they are able to overcome that. Credit to some smart dude on NFL.com for noting that. Oh, and I heard he knows some stuff about the Texans, too.
For people complaining about W Fuller's hands, Mike Evans, Amari Cooper and Julian Edelman all had higher drop rates last year.
— Lance Zierlein (@LanceZierlein) May 2, 2016
Fuller wins by creating yards after the catch on screens with his wiggle, vision, and 4.32 wheels. Nobody in this class comes close to moving as smoothly as he does downfield, and he’s able to work cornerbacks to embarrassment before tracking down a 50-yard bomb for six. Coleman might be the best pure playmaker in this class, but Fuller is even faster and better at tracking down deep passes.
The Texans felt that they needed a player who can take the top off of defenses and be a threat to score at any given moment. That type of playmaking is invaluable, especially if you are a believer in Osweiler’s arm talent.
More importantly, the Texans don’t have to place huge expectations on Fuller as a rookie, and, well, neither should you. The Texans don’t have to bank on him playing like a first-round pick in his rookie season, because they already have Hopkins. By the way, they signed a pretty good running back in free agency, so they can always lean on their running game if they need to.
Rookie expectations and the overall talent of the offense are two important things to keep in mind, but there’s something more inherent about the way Fuller plays the game that makes patience importance. As a player who gets compared to D-Jax and Ted Ginn Jr. often (even though the truth is that he’s a more complicated blend of both), Fuller is the type of receiver who might only be able to make a few plays per game.
As you probably know, any defense’s worst nightmare is giving up a big play, so they do everything in their power to stop that from happening. The thought of someone with Fuller’s speed breaking loose can cause night sweats, which is why it is true that a good deep threat’s biggest impact (somebody like Darrius Heyward-Bey will only scare the worst of strategists) likely won’t be seen in their stats at the end of the season.
Fuller will help open things up for the other Texans receivers and their running game, and I think fans will learn to love having a threat like that looming. However, because he will only make a few catches per game, it is critical not to get discouraged when he has those quiet games, which will likely common in his first season. Even the NFL’s premier deep threat, Jackson, has a career average of just 3.9 receptions per game. Of course, he also has nearly 70 yards per game.
The Texans don’t need Fuller to be a big part of their offense statistically, and they don’t need him to be anything more than a promising, positive piece in his first season. Forget about Doctson, he’s the Washington Redskins latest great receiver that Kirk Cousins can ride to a multi-year paycheck.
Focus on Fuller for what he can bring to this offense, because while I saw warts in his college film, I also see that proper coaching and role could make him a lower-variance NFL player who maintains the same amount of playmaking juice. Which is to say, he could fix his drops and still be a high-TD (29 in his last two seasons at Notre Dame combined), 20 YPR guy in the NFL, and I see no reason to be impatient.
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Houston wanted to add the best role player possible, and by drafting Fuller, they’ve added a spark who brings traits that nobody else on this team- and few in this league- can boast.