It’s always more fun to follow the weekly grind of the NFL when you can revel in the fact that your team is flush with talented players. During the season, I am a frequenter of Pro Football Focus, the website that grades every player in the NFL on every snap, and subsequently ranks them against their peers around the league at each position.
In recent years past, like 2021 and 2022, going to PFF each week was like reliving your worst report cards as a kid. Not fun! Who goes up in the attic to relive the semester you pulled a 1.8 and wound up on academic probation? Nobody I know.
The 2023 season was much different. The 10-7 Texans, thanks to some shrewd drafting and productive free agency signings, wound up with far more players in the lofty green-coded and blue-coded sectors of the PFF rankings. In other words, the weekly PFF visits were far mroe enjoyable! To that end, let’s see which players finished the season with the highest scores, in our final PFF Texans Fab Five.
First, the honorable mentions:
EDGE Will Anderson, 81.7 (21st of 112 Edge Defenders)
EDGE Jon Greenard, 76.7 (30th of 112 Edge Defenders)
LT Laremy Tunsil, 75.5 (20th of 81 Left Tackles)
RB Devin Singletary, 75.1 (24 of 60 Running Backs)
Now, onto the Fab Five, which thanks to a tie at number five is actually a Fab Six:
5. (tie) LB Blake Cashman, 82.1 (7th of 82 Linebackers); CB Derek Stingley, 82.1 (9th of 127 Cornerbacks)
At five, we have a tie between one of the biggest surprises of the season (Cashman) and one of the highest drafted players in the history of the franchise (Stingley). Both players won an AFC Defensive Player of the Week award during the season, Cashman in Week 6 versus New Orleans and Stingley in Week 13 versus Denver. Cashman is a free agent, who has said publicly he would love to be a Texan again in 2024. Stingley, if he can finally stay healthy for a full season, has a chance to make his first Pro Bowl in 2024, and get a big contract extension after the season.
4. EDGE Derek Barnett, 82.4 (19th of 112 Edge Defenders)
Barnett was a waiver wire pickup in midseason by GM Nick Caserio, off the waiver wire from the Philadelphia Eagles, who honestly could have used Barnett down the stretch of the season, as their defense degenerated into trash. Barnett, for his part as a Texan, was more than just an adequate depth piece. With Anderson and Greenard both missing multiple games in the final month of the season, Barnett’s ability to provide pressure off the edge was essential in going 3-1 over the final month of the season.
3. QB CJ Stroud, 83.1 (13th of 38 Quarterbacks)
The only really surprising thing here is that there were 12 quarterbacks who scored better than Stroud, by the PFF metrics. After watching his ascension from rookie to rookie phenom to just plain, ol’ PHENOM, I have a hard time thinking there were a dozen better signal callers in football last season. Watching Stroud these next several years should be a delight!
2. WR Tank Dell, 83.4 (15th of 128 Wide Receivers)
It’s crazy to say this about an undersized rookie taken in the third round, but Dell’s injury in Week 13 changed things drastically for the Texans’ offense. His ability to get open at all levels of the field opened so many things up for other players in the passing game, and his connection with Stroud is very evident. Here’s hoping for a full season of health for Dell and Stroud together next season.
1. WR Nico Collins, 91.4 (8th of 128 Wide Receivers)
This matches the eye test. Stroud was the Texans’ most valuable player, but Collins was their BEST player this season, finishing with 80 catches for 1,297 yards and eight touchdowns. More importantly, he had some of his biggest moments in the biggest games, none bigger than his nine catch, 195 yard performance in the playoff clinching win over the Colts in Week 18.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
