With their resounding 32-12 win over the Los Angeles Chargers in the wild card round of the NFL Playoffs this past Saturday, the Houston Texans have already made it further in the playoffs than many fans and pundits anticipated. Hell, one in particular (yeah YOU, Rex Ryan) even said that the Chargers were on a “bye week” last week. It did not work out that way.
So with renewed confidence and swagger, the Texans will head up to Kansas City later this week for the divisional round, a stage of the postseason that the Texans have achieved five other times in their history. They’ve lost all five, including a 51-31 humbling at the hands of the Chiefs back in January of 2020.
There are no magic tricks or wishes from a genie that can change the composition of the Texans’ roster. They will attack the chiefs with the healthy players they have right now. However, it is fun and somewhat telling to dig into a hypothetical over bringing at least one injured player back. At the very least, it probably highlights the biggest concerns on the current roster.
The four most prominent names on injured reserve right now are their two starting safeties (Jalen Pitre and Jimmie Ward) and two of their three starting wide receivers (Tank Dell and Stefon Diggs). So, I posed the question to Texan fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, as to which of those four you would bring back fully healthy for the remainder of this playoff run. Here’s what they decided:
I’m going to be honest, I did not expect the vote to be THAT lopsided in favor of one player, although if I had to pick a player to receive a lopsided margin like that, it would have been Diggs, who has more Pro Bowl selections than the other three players combined. Here is the case for each one in a few sentences:
STEFON DIGGS, WR (50.8 percent)
DIggs was on his way to a 1,000 yard season, when he tore his ACL in Week 8 against the Indianapolis Colts. He had become a very reliable underneath and midrange target for C.J. Stroud, and was very proficient in moving the chains on third down. Above and beyond that, Diggs had taken on a major leadership role from which the team could have benefitted during their very inconsistent second half of the season. It’s no accident that they were 6-2 with Diggs in the lineup.
TANK DELL, WR (28.9 percent)
Dell took a while to get on track this season, as he seemed to be the forgotten man in the trio of himself, Nico Collins, and Diggs. However, in his final game, the loss to the Chiefs in which he suffered his catastrophic knee injury, Dell was just getting his groove back, with six catches for 98 yards and the touchdown on which he was injured. Dell’s explosive element to his game would have me very seriously considering him over Diggs, if I were to chose an offensive player in this poll.
JALEN PITRE, S (19.3 percent)
To me, Pitre is the most fun option in this poll, because the defense has played well enough without his versatility and hard hitting playmaking, but to think about the next level they could get to with him on the field actually gets me very excited about next season, when he will return from his torn pectoral muscle injury. In fact, the thought of a starting secondary with Derek Stingley, Kamari Lassiter, Calen Bullock and Ward makes me tingle. All five, except Bullock, are in the top twenty percent graded at their position on Pro Football Focus.
JIMMIE WARD, S (1.0 percent)
The only reason I would choose Ward over Pitre is Ward’s next level leadership and veteran savvy. My fear with bringing Ward back on this hypothetical is that he would still find a way to get here within a make-believe world where I dictate healthiness. Ward is hurt all the time, but when he’s out there on the field, you feel his presence.
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