Houston Texans' star Tank Dell is about to go CRAZY in 2024 | film study

Houston Texans receiver tank Dell really made a name for himself in his rookie season and he was just starting to find this new level of dominance when he suffered a freak injury late in the year now while his season was cut short his potential is anything but and I wanted to take a look back at the film to see just how the Houston Texans used him and what that might mean for the 2024 season and Beyond CJ Stroud's arrival elevated the team around him there is absolutely no denying that and both Nico Collins and tank Dell benefited greatly from that but together they also formed a very dangerous wide receiver Duo and when you consider the fact that they've now added Stefan digs into that mix I really don't like that matchup for just about any defense in the NFL going forward so settle in you're going to see plenty of elite level CJ stoud throws but what we're really here for today is tankel his rookie season some of his best plays and the threat he poses to opposition defenses for the foreseeable future before we get into the tape in a Texans uniform I wanted to rewind a little just to get a feel for what it was exactly that Houston was drafting when they selected tank Dell in the third round he was a two-star recruit out of Daytona Beach Florida Who as a result landed at Alabama A&M in the FCS after one season there Dell transferred to Independence Community College the same one from the Netflix series in fact he spent the year there the season after the show was filmed at Independence Dell posted 766 yards and eight touchdowns earning him a roster spot with the Houston Cougars he played a depth role in 2020 but it was the 2021 and 2022 seasons in which he really started to shine he formed a reliable partnership with quarterback Clayton Chun quickly becoming the team's leading receiver in fact in both of his Seasons as a starter Del more than doubled the output of any other receiver on the roster from Jo all the way to a third round draft pick these were just some of the plays he made to attract NFL interest I pulled the film on two games and this is why I found immediately it was clear that there was a plan to get the ball in his hands and allow him to make a play the danger he poses after the catch was something the Cougars were Keen to exploit these screens were consistent occasionally just handing him the ball on an end of round and allowing him to turn up field as a ball carrier quick outs showed up too again aiming to let him find the sideline and then his twitch against man coverage and in short yardage situations showed up too this one's a drop but on the second one he comes over the middle and collects the football against the crashing Defender there were plays showing he could just sit it down in the soft spot picking up easy yards from his quarterback he can win across the face of his Defender as he does here to get open inside and this was my favorite of those showing just how much of a threat he is if you don't get him on the ground this is just a 5 yard slant but he wins on the route collects the football and then breaks the defender's tackle to turn it into almost a 40 yard gain now I'm no expert nor do I claim to be but that's a big green tick in my book he was carving up South Florida so much that eventually they just bracket covered him here with what looks like an edge Defender which is kind of funny to see but he showed strong hands even when when he was tightly covered by a defender of course one of the biggest talking points with your tank Dells and your Xavier worthies is their size and ability to compete in traffic so a catch like this was really promising to see of course when you possess the speed that tank Dell does the threat to blow the top off the defense is something you want to exploit when the moment strikes on this one the Cougars run him on a straight go ball out of the slot the receivers on either side run their routes across the field while Dell goes deep splitting the two deep safeties right down the middle by the time this safety realizes there exposed it's too late for him to get back and cover this and the result is a beautiful ball from Clayton Chun Landing right in the hands for a touchdown on this one tank Dell shows his Defender a little double move before running right by him Chun finds him again down the sideline and this was a really nice catch with very little room to work he almost keeps this in bounds for a score but regardless it's another big gain from the lead receiver he runs this one out of the same stacked look before showing his Defender inside he then Cuts right across his face and runs a fade towards the pylon with another really well-placed football resulting in a touchdown this is just a really nice looking play and a great catch great concentration everything you would want to see from a very talented receiver of course the threat he poses to run right by somebody opens up these comeback routes and this is something we saw a lot of with the Xavier worthy film study the two have drawn plenty of comparisons but when you boast this kind of speed Defenders are going to want to get into their bailout technique in a hurry the result is often easy yards underneath and Dell showed he could sell that deep route before cutting it off multiple times finally I'll just throw this one in in here the initial post route is well covered forcing Clayton tune to scramble Dell very quickly understands the assignment pivots and makes his way back towards the sideline in order to give his quarterback an outlet he makes the catch despite the bearing down Defender proving himself to be a valuable asset in a variety of ways in just a couple of games I was able to watch and we'll see this again when it comes to the CJ stad study with the Texans a little later in the video and as The Story Goes CJ Stroud and tank Dell had gotten to know one another at the combine stoud had complimented the receivers route running and after being drafted by the Texans he suggested they draft Tank Dell too now how much of an influence his request had we don't know they might have already had plans to draft him but tank Dell remained in Houston as the 70th overall pick in the draft's third round in 2022 the Texans hadn't managed to get a single receiver over 700 yards they traded Brandon Cooks to the Dallas Cowboys prior to the draft despite being the leading receiver that Year Chris Mo headed to the Titans leaving Nico Collins as the future of the unit needing further assistance with the addition of tank the Texans now had a very real element of speed and a route Runner their rookie quarterback was very fond of so let's get into the tape and see just how dangerous the future looks for one of the League's budding offenses I've got four games to show you today including three very impressive games and one in which the defense played tank Dell pretty well showing perhaps the adversity that he'll face in the future let's start with Jacksonville the first Jags game of the season in week three was tank Dell's first 100 plus yard game but it was less carefully curated than the others his development throughout the season was clear clear and we'll get into those games in a moment but this one was a tale of stoud and his receiver beginning to get on the same page the first ball was just off although you can see the Twitch in the route from Dell coming out of the slot again here tank Dell is wide open on the Crosser but that Jags defensive front is no joke and stad didn't have time to get it in there I liked this one with the rookie receiver running an in-breaking route before just sitting this down to keep himself open stad finds him and Dell breaks up field before running into the safety here's that comeback route we saw in the college film naturally in the NFL it's less open but still enough for Dell to pick up the reception and an important first down on a third down play this time stad is able to roll out and find Dell on the Crosser and this intermediate Crossing route was one of the most common plays in Dell's rookie season using that speed to break right across the field often getting lost in coverage and finding himself open against Zone he loses the safety and stad throws a nice ball to allow him to turn up field without leading him too close to the sideline but this is where you have to be switched on for every snap of the game when you play this offense on two occasions the Texans had tank Dell streaking wide open deep on the first one the Jags were playing really condensed with nine men down in the Box the bailing safety is showing Blitz on what was around the third and seven play tank Dell is going to run this route as if he's going outside before turning on the gas and streaking deep even with three Defenders trying to track him down stra throws this ball beautifully over all of them with Dell pulling in the reception right at the goal line they'd been warned but they didn't quite learn the lesson this time out of trips on the right side tank Del is just going to flat out go Schulz is going to break inside while Robert Woods runs a shallow out route the switch release confuses the defense with two Defenders following Robert Woods leaving Dell wide open stad says thank you very much and just lays this out there and Dell does a great job to flip his head around locate the football and run away from the defense for a score this is just your offense calling a play and betting on the defense making a mistake leaving the Deep man open is a devastating error resulting in six for the Texans tank Dell was proving a problem but this touchdown came against busted coverage the way he developed throughout the season was impressive and there's still so much more room to grow now he was quiet in a couple of games only one catch for 16 yards against the Pittsburgh Steelers three for a total of 16 yards against the Carolina Panthers but his most targeted game of the season came against Cincinnati if you remember Nico Collins missed that game with a c issue leaving tank Dell as the primary receiver I was really intrigued by that game he might have had 14 targets but he only caught six passes I thought it would be a good indicator of room for him Improvement so let's watch it now credit where credit is due this young Bengal secondary bowled out against tank and stoud in this game time after time they were showing tight coverage and trailing tank really well all over the field they had multiple pass breakups on him including this one from chobia Wu In The End Zone following the route really nicely and making sure that tank doesn't catch a touchdown then the rookie DJ Turner had a really nice game too he got in on the action with this out route forcing the incompletion he showed good recovery here to get back into this play and finish with a really athletic pass break up good coverage again here to cover up tank in the end zone again another incompletion the Bengals just played really good defense even passing him off with Dax Hill shooting this route over the middle again incomplete that said tank did show some of that twitchiness against DJ Turner and what was a really fun battle to watch between two rookies on this one tank releases outside with a jab step then cuts it back he gets good separation here and would be open for the ball but CJ decides to go over the middle tank wins this time again with tight coverage from Turner but a nicely placed ball from stad and a first down with another impressive third down conversion with tight coverage the Texans looked for other ways to involve their budding star picking up this end round here and catching the defense off guard for a nice game sometimes as the Cougars did you just need to get the ball in tank Dell's hands and let him work and this play certainly helped while the defense covered him well and tank struggled a little for separation he won multiple times he makes a really nice adjustment here to collect this ball over the middle and then on this one he pulls away from cam Taylor Brit to secure another one of those intermediate receptions coming across the field stoud lays this one out nicely and tank Dell picks up the first down in fact he's such a threat on these Crossing routes that I noticed he often serves as a superb distraction on this one he drags DJ Turner across the field with CJ then opting to take the completion to Noah Brown on the opposite side and then again on this one with the safety so concerned with tank Dell's speed that Noah Brown ends up wide open again now consider this the Texans upgraded this spot in the offseason and this will now mean that defenses have to choose between leaving tank Dell in single coverage or instead trusting their guys one-on-one against Nico Collins or Stefan dicks on some plays multiple guys are going to face single coverage and that makes them a very very tough offense to cover anyway sometimes the Texans just needed to get tank the ball quickly with soft coverage here stad just takes the yards on a quick out which is always going to be tough to stop with the speed Dell possesses that speed showed up again here for his touchdown running a route that Andy Reid would be proud of reminiscent of the Kansas City offense this motion inside is meant to confuse the defensive alignment and even though the Bengals actually do a pretty good job of managing it Dell picks up the football and then just slams his foot on the pedal this is just pure acceleration to burst away from the Defenders and get into the end zone a lot of guys would have been held short of the goal line on this play but I'd like to see more intentional motion and plays like this to set up the defense from tank Dell you could see in this game that tank Dell was still learning on the Fly he is of course a rookie which is actually a huge positive while he was great as a rookie he still has so much room to grow and I don't doubt that he will with a great quarterback growing right alongside him I've analyzed this play before in the CJ Stroud video on the channel but tank is wide open here he should slow this down and stoud would find him for a big gain he's almost too Twitchy Dell overruns it and runs himself right into a nasty looking hit from Dax Hill stoud is big on keeping his guys healthy you won't find him throwing Hospital passes and Dell just needs to trust the placement of the ball had he slowed up a little he'd have caught this easily and avoided the hit on this one he pauses where he should just keep running this route and again he likely catches it right on the sideline but this is the one that hurt and not tank Dell's ribs this is a no no I'm no NFL receiver in fact pretty far from it but allowing yourself to drift on a Crossing route is a nightmare situation stoud should perhaps pull this down but ultimately tank allows cam Taylor Brit to run this route for him and the result is almost a pick six fortunately he at least pulls him down short of the goal line but again he'll learn from this he had a drop here too on a wide open pass so this bals game was a real mixed bag there were some great plays a touchdown and definitely some learnings to take forward now on to two of his brighter games and I'm saving the best until last before then let's move over to the Cardinals game tank Dell gave the Cardinals defense and particularly Marco Wilson a lot of trouble in fact Wilson was benched after this game and eventually cut by Arizona his matchup with tank Dell would be his last in an Arizona uniform pretty Cutthroat League at times the quick outs were present again and again proved very difficult to cover with tank Dell speed and change of Direction I do think he can get better at snapping his routes off at the top of his stem which will only lead to better separation further down the line the comeback route showed up again too with stoud somehow squeezing this one in for tank to turn up field and get down the sideline you can see how hard that is to cover here and tank Dell's making me eat my words with a sharp cut at the top of the route to create several yards of Separation stra doesn't look his way on this one but I like the football IQ to turn back towards his quarterback and then make a cut towards the sideline to find Space he's open but the quarterback just doesn't see it now he does a tremendous job of going from a full speed go route to settling in space and a lot of the time it means he's wide open and then even against close coverage here Dell makes a really nice play to collect this football in traffic and once again move the chains you can see why stoud likes him so often he's the guy getting open beyond the first down marker and these intermediate routes are so dangerous with Dell making consistent plays in fact tank Dell made several high level plays in this game this one is superb Dell runs this stem slightly inside closing his defender's body towards the middle of the field he then breaks outside forcing the defender to turn the long way round to relocate his man then just as paor Marco Wilson is still trying to recover he snaps the route back towards stad before coming back to the football and making a superb hands catch I mean that got me hyped and yes it was another first down then this one is a third and 17 maybe 18 D runs right at his man beyond the first down marker and then again gets him to commit inside he then breaks to the boundary and collects this Dart Stroud throws on the run to pick up a first down these are the sorts of plays that kill the confidence of a defense giving up a third and long light that but once again it was the two rookies connecting to make it happen and yet while both of these plays really got me amped up neither were the best of this game poor Marco Wilson is left all turned around again here and this one's really ugly Dell runs up the field and breaks towards the boundary Marco Wilson goes to break on that route before Dell makes a nice Cut to step back inside I should never have said he needs to be better at the top of his stem should I at this point he's open like if we pause it right here CJ strad could throw this in there and he would be open but Stroud is being pressured and has to move out of the pocket now watch these two rookies yes rookies go to work to turn this into a touchdown Stroud gestures for him to go deep at which point he spins just like he did earlier in the video with Clayton chune with pressure in his face this is an absolute dime from The Young quarterback but the acrobatic way in which Dell snags it behind his Defender is just as good if not better the result is an incredible highlight play and a remarkable touchdown from two guys that you'd think have been playing together for a decade okay and finally now we're really in a Groove the game against Tampa Bay now this game was actually the week before the game against Cincinnati but Texans fans will know exactly why I left it until last another stunning route Carlton Davis is so lost here and I like Caron Davis but look at this separation I love this it's just it's a nice play great route here over the middle settles in space great throw completion and a first down obviously this was great too sits this down right in the middle plenty of space available for his quarterback great completion and again first down same thing here forcing his Defender into a bailout then cutting it off to collect the football say it with me now first down now it wasn't perfect and again that's a good thing because even with some of the great plays I've cut for this video and the best is yet to come there's still so much room for improvement stra just missed him here on a deep ball that could have been a touchdown tank Dell has clearly won on the route out but the ball is just offline towards the sideline then stoud is a little late seeing Dell open here and by the time he throws it out there it's a little high and a tad late he throws this one out in front and again the connection just isn't quite there for the big game then there was an incompletion on what was a tidily thrown ball and on this conversion down by the goal line stad throws it just a little behind tank Dell who maybe over accelerates Just a Touch several plays that had they connected on would have resulted in a 200 plus yard day for tank Dell the future is extremely bright but the two made waves in this game this touchdown throw is nothing short of elite it's phenomenal it's inspirational this is just a peach tank Dell's hesitation forces the corner to pause and then he just blows right by him Elite play but Texans fans will remember this game for the late game heroics with 12 seconds left on the clock driving down the field and trailing by Four Points CJ stad and tank Dell put on a show considering the moment and what's on the line the touch on this pass couldn't be better tank Dell finds the space between the shallow corner and the Deep man and stoud lays it out there beautifully to give his team a chance and most importantly allow him to get out of bounds and stop the clock then with 6 seconds left on the clock stoud finds him again and again the route is crisp tank Dell shows carton Davis a little outside shimmy before running a post and stoud throws a strike Dell makes a brilliant catch and the game's over rookie to rookie six for the home side Elite ball all around Crowd Goes Wild ball game so Texans fans turn up get hyped this film study was an absolute pleasure to research and the plays were a treat to watch cutting it together made me appreciate how far CJ Stroud and tank Dell came in such a short period of time while also giving me great excitement for how much further they can go here's to tank Dell bouncing back from an unfortunate injury and playing his part in one of the League's greatest offenses in 2024 CJ strad Nico Collins tank and now Stefon digs yeah give me that film I'll study it gladly and I'll see you back here when we get our grubby little hands on those plays for more of this so thank you for being here I appreciate you please do stick around tank Dell the floor is yours

Channel: Alex & the NFL

Views: 3,948

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Id: 15kukvTdVo0

Length: 18min 45sec (1125 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 09 2024