In Deshaun Watson, J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus, the Texans have several key players coming back from serious injuries but they won’t be getting tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz back.
Fiedorowicz signed a three-year deal with Houston after a 54-catch season in 2016, but three concussions limited him to five games in 2017 and led to his decision to retire once the year came to an end. That leaves the Texans with seven tight ends on the roster right now and tight ends coach Tim Kelly said several of them will be tasked with filling the role come the regular season.
“I think they all have different strengths and weaknesses that they have to work on,” Kelly said, via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle. “As far as replacing anybody, I don’t know if one person is going to do it. I think it will be more of a collective effort. But again, if you look at the tight ends and how they played last year, it’s more of a collective group, even when C.J. was in the room.”
Ryan Griffin will likely be at the top of that group. He’s played a lot of snaps the last two seasons and Stephen Anderson played nearly 40 percent of the offensive snaps last year while Fiedorowicz was injured. Houston also drafted Jordan Akins and Jordan Thomas to go with MyCole Pruitt, Matt Lengel and Jevoni Robinson.