The Texans re-signed Darren Fells yesterday. It's a two-year deal for a player who's valuable in some leagues, pretty ordinary in others. Because all he does is catch touchdowns.
Fells has been with four teams the last four seasons. He just set a career high in receptions with 34 -- barely more than 2 per game, and his age next month as it happens. In PPR scoring, you can pretty much forget about him.
But more than 20 percent of his 34 catches went for touchdowns (7). Of the 62 passes he's caught the last three seasons, 13 have gone for scores (21 percent), making him considerably valuable in TD-only leagues (those that still exist) and standard scoring, to a lesser extent.
He's playing for a team that tends to throw a large percentage of its touchdowns to tight ends. Last year, Houston threw 27 touchdown passes, and a third (9) went to tight ends. That was the 5th-highest rate in the league.
| TIGHT END TDS, PER TEAM | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | TE | Tm | %TD |
| Philadelphia | 12 | 27 | 44% |
| Cleveland | 9 | 22 | 41% |
| Oakland | 9 | 22 | 41% |
| Baltimore | 14 | 37 | 38% |
| Houston | 9 | 27 | 33% |
| New Orleans | 12 | 36 | 33% |
| Indianapolis | 7 | 22 | 32% |
| NY Jets | 6 | 19 | 32% |
| Denver | 5 | 16 | 31% |
| Minnesota | 8 | 26 | 31% |
| Cincinnati | 5 | 18 | 28% |
| LA Chargers | 6 | 24 | 25% |
| San Francisco | 7 | 28 | 25% |
| Atlanta | 7 | 29 | 24% |
| Tennessee | 7 | 29 | 24% |
| Dallas | 7 | 30 | 23% |
| NY Giants | 7 | 30 | 23% |
| LA Rams | 5 | 22 | 23% |
| Miami | 5 | 22 | 23% |
| Seattle | 7 | 31 | 23% |
| Arizona | 4 | 20 | 20% |
| Green Bay | 5 | 26 | 19% |
| Buffalo | 4 | 21 | 19% |
| Carolina | 3 | 17 | 18% |
| Kansas City | 5 | 30 | 17% |
| Pittsburgh | 3 | 18 | 17% |
| Washington | 3 | 18 | 17% |
| Tampa Bay | 5 | 33 | 15% |
| Jacksonville | 3 | 24 | 13% |
| Detroit | 3 | 28 | 11% |
| Chicago | 2 | 20 | 10% |
| New England | 2 | 25 | 8% |
Surprising seeing New England way at the bottom. Also Tampa Bay, considering their duo of O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate. Chicago, often mentioned as a possible landing spot for Austin Hooper, also fares poorly in this area.
Fells make some sense in best-ball formats or definitely TD-only leagues, but hard to get excited about him. Houston has also used a lot of draft picks on tight ends recently, so maybe Fells is insurance, and could drop out of prominence if Jordan Thomas, Jordan Akins or Kahale Warring steps up next year.
--Andy Richardson