Big opportunities await the big tight end in 2019" />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesHorizontal - WhiteBattle Red Bloga Houston Texans communityLog In or Sign UpLog InSign UpFanpostsFanshotsTexansOddsAboutMastheadCommunity GuidelinesStubHubMoreAll 322 blogs on Horizontal - WhiteFanposts Fanshots Texans StoriesScheduleRosterStatsYahoo Texans NewsYahoo Texans Team PageYahoo Texans ReportYahoo Texans Depth ChartYahoo Texans TransactionsYahoo Texans PhotosOdds About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub ✕Sophomore Season Outlook: TE Jordan ThomasNew http://www.thetexanslockerroom.com/authentic-arian-foster-jersey ,20commentsBig opportunities await the big tight end in 2019CDTShareTweetShareShareSophomore Season Outlook: TE Jordan ThomasPhoto by Tim Warner/Getty ImagesA promising rookie season created high expectations for Jordan Thomas heading into his second season. It’s a well known fact, one that’s been reiterated by Head Coach Bill O’Brien, that the most important leap for a player is from the first to second season. As Thomas enters this pivotal point in his career, it’s important to understand where he will impact the Texans offense and what his ceiling is moving forward.At Mississippi State, Thomas was was a pseudo-wide receiver, rarely putting his hand in the ground, and lining up outside of the numbers to match up against smaller college corner backs. With his basketball background, Thomas understands positioning and spacing and is naturally skilled with his hands. For the Texans, Thomas tied DeAndre Hopkins for most receiving touchdowns in a rookie season with four TDs. In his best game of the season against the Dolphins, Thomas caught four receptions, two touchdowns, and put on display his threatening red zone size and speed combination. Next Gen Stats breaks down Thomas’ best performance.Thomas’ two touchdown game provides evidence to his potential next yearThis touchdown exhibits Thomas’ development as a pass catching tight end and a route runner off the line of scrimmage. In this play below, the Texans run simple play action with Thomas running a corner route as the wing back. Off of the snap Thomas aids in the run fake by heading towards the strong side linebacker. One of the most undervalued parts of the play action is the timing factor of the play. If the tight end turns up field too quickly, the gig is up. If Deshaun Watson turns too quickly, the fake does not sell. In this play, the Miami linebackers over-pursued after a good initial fake by Watson, aided by Lamar Miller gouging the Dolphins’ defense with every rush. Thomas does an excellent job turning his hips and changing directions to be available immediately after Watson sets his feet.At 6’5”, 280 pounds, Thomas is a match up nightmare across the field. He blocks out the sun against nickel cornerbacks and is too light on his feet to be handled by linebackers. In this play above, Thomas finds the soft spot in the Brown’s zone by reading the linebacker as he drops back into coverage. Since the linebacker’s eyes are Watson and not the tight end, Thomas recognizes that settling down just next to the defender allows Watson to make a safe throw over the middle. With the ball in his hands, Thomas’ agility and size are on display as he gets almost 10 yards after the catch. Moving the chains is going to be Thomas’ lottery ticket as Watson needs reliable options to go to when the pocket collapses.The biggest learning curve for Thomas will be his ability to run block. Against 3-4 outside linebackers, he has a much better time maintaining his blocks than grappling with 4-3 defensive ends with much lower centers of gravity. With newly acquired tight end Darren Fells handling most of the blocking responsibilities Jadeveon Clowney Jersey White , Thomas won’t be thrown in the deep end for blocking duties. All four of Thomas’ touchdown occurred in the red zone. When the field gets a little smaller and the windows shrink, you need a big target to stand out like a vegan at a brisket competition. Thomas is easily the tallest and largest receiving option Watson has on this roster.This type of formation will be very popular for the Texans heading into the 2019 season. Sub out Ryan Griffin and DeAndre Carter on the right side and sub in Will Fuller V and Keke Coutee, and you’ve got yourself one dangerous offense. In this set, Thomas is lined up as a wing back off the line of scrimmage. This not only forces the defensive end (#53 for the Browns) to line up further outside, but still keeps a sixth person in the box for blocking. This alignment is a pandoras box of plays and really sets up the defense to pick and choose which battles they want to lose. Heading into the 2019 season, Thomas’ job will be simple, become THE safety valve for Watson over the middle and be a red zone mismatch. He will assist in the run blocking when necessary, but the Texans seem to have a plan in place with Fells to take over major run blocking issues when the time calls. Taking a page out of his mentor’s playbook, O’Brien will only ask Thomas to do what he is good at—catching the football.Texans have five tight ends on the roster who all have legitimate claims to a roster spot. Kahale Warring, the third round draft pick, Ryan Griffin, the veteran, Darren Fells, the much-needed blocking tight end, Jordan Aikins, the high-upside third rounder from last year, and then there is Jordan Thomas who has the highest ceiling of the group. Mike Bullock believes Thomas will be the Day One starter at Tight End for the Texans. For that to be true, Thomas must gain the trust of O’Brien and be able to extend his route tree outside of play action corner routes and TE option routes. My prediction? Thomas leads the tight end group in receptions and touchdowns with 38 receptions and five touchdowns on the season. That’s pretty substantial production for a second year sixth round pick. HOUSTON (AP) — Indianapolis receiver T.Y. Hilton missed multiple practices with a shoulder injury in the week leading up to Sunday’s trip to NRG Stadium for a critical AFC South matchup. The Colts said his status was up in the air.Hilton knew he couldn’t possibly miss a game at a place where he’s had more success than any receiver since the stadium opened in 2002.He played, and in Indianapolis’ 24-21 win over Houston, Hilton had 199 receiving yards and Andrew Luck threw for 399 yards and two touchdowns.“This is my second home, man,” Hilton said, laughing. “This is my second home. I don’t know. Every time I come here http://www.thetexanslockerroom.com/authentic-shane-lechler-jersey , I just go off. I don’t know what it is.”Hilton entered as the all-time leader in receiving yards per game at NRG Stadium with 122.3 yards and finished Sunday just shy of 200 yards with nine catches on 12 targets. In seven career games in Houston, Hilton has topped 100 yards four times, with three of those for more than 175 yards.The Colts (7-6) snapped a nine-game winning streak by the Texans (9-4), trimming Houston’s lead over the AFC South to two games with three remaining.Luck said throughout the week, the Colts were seeing things in the Texans’ defense that led them to believe Hilton’s “speed and maneuverability” could again be a key to success in Houston.“Once we got that first one, it was like, ‘OK, here we go,'” Luck said. “When T.Y.’s in the zone, he’s in a zone, man. It’s fun to play with him and it’s an honor to play with him.”Hilton’s performance gave him his 11th 150-yard game, setting a franchise record. He has also topped 800 receiving yards for a seventh consecutive season, the longest active streak in the NFL.The Colts started slow and didn’t have a first down until early in the second quarter. They went to a no-huddle offense and found momentum on that drive before a pass from Luck was tipped by Kareem Jackson and intercepted by Andre Hal.Indianapolis finally ended a lengthy scoring drought after a 60-yard completion to Hilton set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Marlon Mack.The Colts entered Sunday having allowed just 14 sacks, second only to New Orleans. Houston’s usually menacing pass rush was largely neutralized with just two sacks from J.J. Watt and Christian Covington after being held without a sack against Cleveland last week.“They did a good job, they played good football,” Watt said. “T.Y. obviously had a huge day. We knew going in that’s a guy we had to stop and we didn’t. That’s on everybody. Luck did a good job spreading it around, guys got open and he found them. We have to play better.”Indianapolis’ defense, on the other hand, gave Houston fits both in the passing and running game. The Colts sacked Watson five times for a loss of 41 yards and held Houston’s rushing offense to just 89 yards on 25 carries.“There was a confidence all week,” Reich said. “What was best about this was, we expected to win this game. We really did.”Watson had 267 yards passing and 35 yards rushing. Tight end Ryan Griffin led Houston receivers with 80 yards on five catches, while Hopkins was held to 36 yards on four catches.“We’re good. I mean, it’s the NFL — every game is tough Jordan Akins Jersey ,” Watson said. “It’s tough to go on a two-game winning streak.We went on nine. Today it ended, but it’s a new task to put this game behind us. Next week, we’re 0-0 and we’ll try to get 1-0. It’s no panic button for us. We’ll keep moving and try to flip the script next week and get back to the winning column.”Houston cut Indianapolis’ lead to 24-21 with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Deshaun Watson to DeAndre Hopkins with less than three minutes remaining. With the Colts facing a critical third-and-1 at midfield, Luck drew Jadeveon Clowney offside to secure a first down and the win.Clowney refused to comment when approached by reporters.Houston scored first on a 3-yard touchdown run by running back Alfred Blue. The Colts then scored 17 straight before Houston opened the third quarter with a long drive to a 1-yard touchdown run on a direct snap to Lamar Miller to cut the Colts’ lead to 17-14.The Colts took a 14-7 lead late in the first half on a 14-yard pass from Luck to Eric Ebron. It was Luck’s fourth straight touchdown pass to a tight end, three of which went to Ebron.Luck had not thrown a touchdown pass to a non-tight end since the Nov. 18 win over Tennessee until the third quarter, when he found receiver Zach Pascal for a 12-yarder to put the Colts up 24-14.Indianapolis had a 54-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri as time expired in the second quarter to take a 17-7 halftime lead. During Houston’s winning streak, the team never trailed at halftime.“I don’t like what happened today, but I’m fine with where we are,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. “This is the NFL. We did not do a good enough job today. The Colts did a much better job than us. There’s a lot of football left.”PLAYOFF RACEIndianapolis will host the Cowboys and Giants before closing out the season in Tennessee, while Houston visits the Jets and Eagles before hosting Jacksonville in the finale.HOPKINS’ MILESTONEWith a 10-yard reception in the third quarter, Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins topped 7,000 receiving yards in his career. At 26 years, 6 months, 3 days, Hopkins became the second-youngest player in NFL history to surpass 7,000 yards, behind only Larry Fitzgerald who was 26 years, 3 months and 20 days when he reached the mark.EBRON IN THE END ZONEWith his 12th receiving touchdown of the season, Colts tight end Eric Ebron set a franchise record for the position. The record was previously held by Dallas Clark. Ebron also has one rushing touchdown on the season. In four seasons with the Lions, Ebron totaled 11 touchdown catches and one rushing touchdown.ASTROS IN ATTENDANCEHouston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, infielder/outfielder Marwin Gonzalez and pitcher Lance McCullers were all in attendance, with Bregman wearing a custom No. 2 Texans jersey with his name on the back. Bregman also briefly played catch with Watt on the sidelines during pre-game warmups.INJURIESTexans receiver and kick returner Deandre Carter left in the first quarter and was later ruled out with a concussion. . Colts right guard Mark Glowinski was carted to the locker room in the second quarter with an ankle injury.UP NEXTColts: Host the Cowboys next Sunday.Texans: Visit the Jets next Saturday.