C.J. Stroud and company have come to make it really hard to defend this Houston Texans offense week in and week out.
Who do you cover?
Entering Week 12, Stroud has spread the ball around to 14 different players and six of those have reeled in at least one score. Last week against the Cardinals in a 21-16 victory, Stroud hit eight different players with a pass on 27 completions.
Stroud doesn't know exactly when he became such a good distributor of the football but pinned it back to somewhere in the days when he and his friends would play pickup games in the street.
"Whoever was open was going to get the ball," Stroud said. "I like to feed my guys that put in work every week. I see it physically, I get to see them work their tail off in the morning until we leave here and then on top of that dudes are watching film at home. I take pride in getting guys paid and making them feel their worth on the field."
Each week teams try to match-up their best defensive players with the opponents best offensive weapons head-to-head and rightfully so. But with the Texans, who do you line your best up with?
Tank Dell and Nico Collins could top that list as the Houston Texans' two top receivers entering Week 12 with a combined 85 catches for 1,355 yards and 10 touchdowns.
But then there's more.
Tight end Dalton Schultz, the offseason signing from the Cowboys, has come in and been folded into the offense with success and has 39 grabs for 453 yards and five scores to show for it.
But there's more weapons for Stroud.
Add in Noah Brown (21 receptions, 439 yards, 1 TD), Robert Woods (28 receptions, 286 yards, 1 TD), John Metchie III (10 receptions, 123 yards) and running back Devin Singletary (12 receptions, 59 yards) and it's a laundry list of options for the rookie quarterback and a corresponding nightmare for opposing defensive coordinators.
"We haven't gotten a team that travels yet with whoever you would consider our No. 1," Stroud said. "You can see on the film they kind of have to play honest, because you can get got by anybody on our offense. Our running backs, our tight ends, our receivers. We've seen some really great defenses do that and we've been able to move the ball well. It's not easy. It's going to be harder this week going against a team twice."
The Texans (6-4) face the Jaguars (7-3) on Sunday at Noon at NRG Stadium for a second time this season. In Week 3, Houston defeated Jacksonville 37-17. Dell led the team in receiving with 145 yards in that game.
The next week Collins led the team against Pittsburgh (168 yards, 2 TD), a few weeks later it was Brown against the Buccaneers (153 yards, TD) and then the Bengals (172 yards) in back-to-back stellar performances. Last week it was Dell again with a career-high (149 yards, TD).
So, again – who do you cover?
"It's really cool to see every week somebody doing well," Stroud said.
