Deshaun Watson and J.J. Watt have been the two trending players in Houston in recent weeks (and deservedly so) but the Texans have another player that will be intriguing to watch in the offseason. Will Fuller is an explosive wide receiver, and he’s headed for free agency.
There’s a bunch of talented pass catchers headed to the market, of course, with Allen Robinson, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chris Godwin leading the way. When Fuller is healthy and dialed in and healthy, he’s a similar kind of talent.
Fuller is one of the most explosive wide receivers in the league, with the ability to get behind defenses for long scores. When he’s “on”, he’s a top-10 type receiving talent.
But at the same time, Fuller has had a lot of problems staying healthy, consistently picking up leg injuries. He’s had a series of hamstring pulls, and he missed over half of the 2018 season after tearing his ACL. In his five seasons, he’s missed 2, 6, 9, 5 and 5 games.
Fuller didn’t actually miss any games with injuries last year, but he was suspended for six games after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. (That suspension will keep him out of Week 1 in the upcoming season.)
It will be interesting to see how teams value Fuller when trying to allocate their offseason dollars.
Looking at per-game production, Fuller ranks 25th over the last four years. That’s among wide receivers who’ve started at least half the time. If you use standard scoring rather than PPR, he moves up to 17th.
| WIDE RECEIVERS PER GAME (2017-20) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | No | Yds | TD | PPR |
| Davante Adams | 55 | 7.0 | 84.4 | .85 | 20.5 |
| Antonio Brown | 38 | 6.7 | 88.7 | .77 | 20.2 |
| DeAndre Hopkins | 62 | 6.9 | 89.1 | .61 | 19.5 |
| Tyreek Hill | 58 | 5.3 | 82.7 | .79 | 18.9 |
| Michael Thomas | 55 | 7.6 | 87.5 | .42 | 18.8 |
| Julio Jones | 56 | 6.3 | 94.4 | .36 | 17.9 |
| Keenan Allen | 62 | 6.5 | 77.1 | .45 | 17.0 |
| Stefon Diggs | 60 | 5.9 | 75.6 | .52 | 16.9 |
| Mike Evans | 60 | 4.9 | 78.1 | .59 | 16.3 |
| Adam Thielen | 57 | 5.4 | 70.0 | .61 | 16.2 |
| Chris Godwin | 43 | 5.0 | 73.8 | .57 | 15.9 |
| Calvin Ridley | 44 | 4.9 | 69.6 | .61 | 15.7 |
| Robert Woods | 59 | 5.5 | 69.0 | .39 | 15.4 |
| Julian Edelman | 34 | 5.7 | 67.1 | .38 | 15.3 |
| Odell Beckham | 39 | 5.1 | 69.4 | .45 | 15.2 |
| Cooper Kupp | 54 | 5.3 | 66.1 | .44 | 14.7 |
| Allen Robinson | 46 | 5.6 | 68.9 | .37 | 14.7 |
| JuJu Smith-Schuster | 58 | 5.3 | 64.2 | .48 | 14.6 |
| DK Metcalf | 32 | 4.4 | 68.8 | .54 | 14.6 |
| Jarvis Landry | 63 | 5.5 | 63.1 | .40 | 14.4 |
| Tyler Boyd | 45 | 5.4 | 64.8 | .36 | 14.2 |
| Marvin Jones | 54 | 4.3 | 62.3 | .59 | 14.1 |
| Amari Cooper | 61 | 4.8 | 65.4 | .45 | 14.1 |
| DJ Moore | 40 | 4.9 | 74.1 | .23 | 14.1 |
| Will Fuller | 39 | 4.2 | 63.5 | .56 | 13.9 |
| Brandin Cooks | 61 | 4.4 | 65.9 | .35 | 13.3 |
| Tyler Lockett | 64 | 4.4 | 56.7 | .49 | 13.2 |
| Kenny Golladay | 47 | 3.9 | 65.3 | .45 | 13.1 |
| Sterling Shepard | 49 | 5.1 | 57.9 | .29 | 12.9 |
| T.Y. Hilton | 55 | 4.3 | 63.6 | .37 | 12.8 |
| Alshon Jeffery | 43 | 4.0 | 51.8 | .51 | 12.2 |
| Emmanuel Sanders | 55 | 4.5 | 54.9 | .33 | 12.1 |
| Robby Anderson | 62 | 4.2 | 57.5 | .35 | 12.1 |
| A.J. Green | 41 | 4.1 | 56.0 | .39 | 12.0 |
| Golden Tate | 54 | 4.6 | 53.0 | .33 | 12.0 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | 61 | 5.0 | 50.9 | .30 | 11.9 |
| Jamison Crowder | 52 | 4.5 | 52.1 | .34 | 11.9 |
| Michael Gallup | 41 | 3.7 | 57.9 | .33 | 11.5 |
| DeVante Parker | 53 | 4.1 | 56.1 | .28 | 11.4 |
| Christian Kirk | 39 | 4.1 | 49.2 | .32 | 11.2 |
—Ian Allan