Facebook Pixel

    Texans Start-Sit: Week 8 Fantasy Advice for Joe Mixon, Tank Dell, Stefon Diggs, and Others

    Here's all the fantasy football advice you need to determine whether you should start or sit these players on the Houston Texans.

    Published on

    The Houston Texans will face the Indianapolis Colts in Week 8. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Texans skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.

    Pro Football Network Start_Sit Optimizer Banner CTA
    Check out the FREE Start/Sit Optimizer from Pro Football Network to ensure you are making the right decisions for your fantasy lineup every week!

    Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 8 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.

    C.J. Stroud, QB

    The receiver position has been gaining steam in terms of how valuable it is considered within the NFL, something that we’ve seen in the contracts at the top of the totem pole. We’ve also seen it by way of the Houston Texans.

    Nico Collins was injured on Stroud’s way to a second straight game with over 330 passing yards and has missed two games now — Stroud has a total of 278 yards through the air in those contests. In Weeks 1-5, Stroud completed 51.2% of his 8.2 deep pass attempts per game and was threatening defenses vertically on a consistent basis. Since then, he’s at 36.4% on 5.5 attempts per game.

    Stroud picked apart these Colts in the season opener (24/32 for 234 yards and a pair of touchdowns), but it should be noted that Collins accounted for 25% of his completions and 50% of his passing yards. This matchup doesn’t scare, but the limited ceiling does in a week where no teams are on a bye and a few of the fringe QB1s have plus matchups.

    As of right now, I have Caleb Williams (at Commanders), Sam Darnold (at Rams), and Kirk Cousins (at Buccaneers on short rest) ranked ahead of Stroud for me, a sentence I didn’t think I’d type at any point in my life, let alone before Halloween.

    Joe Mixon, RB

    The only thing Mixon failed to do against the Packers last week was Lambeau Leap. The Green Bay faithful wouldn’t let him plunge into the first row, and that might hurt the ego, but he can’t be feeling too bad after piling up 124 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

    Mixon has three top-five finishes this season and has been operating at full strength after missing nearly a month. I’ve got my questions about this passing game with Nico Collins on the shelf, but a lack of balance hasn’t been a deal-breaker against the Colts this season.

    Over the past three weeks, Tank Bigsby, Tony Pollard, and De’Von Achane have averaged 18.1 PPR points against Indy. This is the only run defense in the league that is a bottom-five defense in terms of running back yards per carry before and after contact this season.

    I’m always skeptical about an older back sustaining value as the weather turns, but there are zero concerns in the scope of Week 8.

    Stefon Diggs, WR

    We saw signs of decline down the field from Stefon Diggs in the second half of last season, so when Nico Collins went down, I was worried about the former’s stock.

    Would Diggs be asked to play outside of his comfort zone and down the field? Would the lack of a feared perimeter option clog the short-yardage targets?

    As it turns out, no.

    Diggs has accounted for 36.7% of Houston’s receptions in the two games that Collins has missed, catching 78.6% of his targets in the process (teammates over that stretch: 50%). He may not have a 30-yard catch this season, and we are more than a full year removed from his last 40-yard reception, but there are a variety of ways to pay the fantasy bills.

    Games with 65+ receiving yards, Weeks 3-7

    Is that a cherry-picked leaderboard? You’re damn right it is, but the point remains that Diggs has proven to be as stable a fantasy option as anyone at the position recently. That has him grading out as a high-end WR2 for me in a week where Houston carries an implied total of 26.5 points.

    Tank Dell, WR

    I wasn’t high on Dell coming into the season, but even I had him ahead of my players-who-go-by-the-name-Tank rankings. That’s not the case anymore.

    Dell was held without a catch in Lambeau last week (four targets) and has no more than 40 receiving yards in four games this season. We’ve seen him make splash plays in the past to rescue otherwise unappealing weeks, but does that happen against a Colts defense this week that gives up deep touchdowns at the fourth-lowest rate?

    I don’t like what I’ve seen from this offense sans Nico Collins, and that has me looking for other Flex options if possible (I have Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Darnell Mooney, and Khalil Shakir all ranked ahead of him for PPR leagues this week).

    Dalton Schultz, TE

    Being on the field is Step 1 to produce, but it’s not the only step, and Schultz is proof of just that. He’s been on the field for over 75% of Houston’s offensive snaps in five straight games, but he doesn’t yet have 35 receiving yards in a game, something that feels impossible given the various injuries that have taken place around him in this offense.

    With just one end-zone target on the season, Schultz is drawing dead in many regards. This offense isn’t as explosive as we were hoping, and that further lowers the scoring equity for their tight end. If you’re looking for options on the wire, Hunter Henry is still available in some spots, and Ja’Tavion Sanders has my interest in deeper formats.

    Indianapolis Colts at Houston Texans Game Insights

    Indianapolis Colts

    Team: One team this season is giving away at least five minutes in time of possession per game, and it’s the Colts – at -7:34 per game.

    QB: Anthony Richardson’s 48.5% completion percentage is the lowest through a team’s first seven games since Josh Freeman in 2013.

    Offense: The Colts are allowing pressure on just 27.9% of dropbacks, the third-lowest rate in the league.

    Defense: Indianapolis has allowed a touchdown on just 2.2% of deep passes, the fourth-lowest rate in the league.

    Fantasy: Tyler Goodson has finished each of the past three weeks as RB33 or better (Trey Sermon has finished worse than that in the past two weeks).

    Betting: The Colts are 9-2 ATS in their last 11 road games with a projected point total north of 45 points.

    Houston Texans

    Team: A win would be Houston’s third straight over Indianapolis, tying their longest win streak ever vs. the Colts (also done from 2015-16).

    QB: C.J. Stroud ranks second in EPA per dropback against man coverage (0.36), but only 24th against zone (-0.11). The Colts play zone coverage at the third-highest rate of any defense (78.7%).

    Offense: The Texans allowed a 51.7% pressure rate in Sunday’s loss to the Packers, their second-highest in C.J. Stroud’s 22 career starts.

    Defense: The Texans have allowed a touchdown on a league-high 7% of opponent passes.

    Fantasy: Nico Collins was injured on Stroud’s way to a second straight game with over 330 passing yards and has missed two games now – Stroud has 278 yards through the air in those contests. In Weeks 1-5, Stroud completed 51.2% of his 8.2 deep pass attempts per game and was threatening defenses vertically on a consistent basis. Since, he’s at 36.4% on 5.5 attempts per game.

    Betting: Unders are 9-4 since the start of 2020 when the Texans host a divisional opponent (69.2%).

    Related Stories