a traumatic experience
Houston Texans star Tank Dell opens up about Florida shooting
Jun 4, 2024, 3:49 pm
We expect big things from Tank Dell this season. Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images.
As Houston Texans receiver Tank Dell recovered in the hospital after being wounded in a Florida restaurant shooting, one question dominated his thoughts.
“The only thing I was asking (was) am I going to be all right to play football? Like that was my main thing,” Dell said Tuesday. “Will I be OK to run and play football like I’d been doing?”
Doctors soon told him that the gunshot wound to his leg was a flesh wound that would leave no permanent damage.
“So, once they told me it was just like a through and through, once they told me that and was like, ‘You’ll be good,’ I was ready to go,” Dell said.
The second-year player said he was sidelined for only about a week after the April shooting in Sanford, Florida, that wounded nine others before resuming his workouts to prepare for the season.
“It’s just a blessing that I’m safe,” said Dell, who is from Daytona Beach. “But it’s a traumatic experience.”
Dell has completely recovered from the shooting and was a full participant in Houston’s minicamp Tuesday. He shined in the more than hourlong practice, grabbing several passes from C.J. Stroud.
Dell said he’s moved on from the shooting with the help of his faith, family, friends and those in the Texans organization. He attends church once a week and prays each morning and night.
“I got God on my side, keep him first in everything I do,” he said. “So, I feel good. I’ve got the right group of guys around me, keeping my head up, my mom, my pops, people back home, my grandmother, everybody praying for me and just calling me checking in every day now.”
Dell was drafted in the third round in 2023 after a standout career at the University of Houston. He had 709 yards receiving and set a franchise rookie record with seven touchdown receptions last season before breaking his left fibula in December.
After missing time with that injury, then dealing with the aftermath of the shooting, Dell is happy simply to be back on the field.
“It’s a blessing just to be out there just running around,” he said. “I don’t even have to get the ball, just running around and just running routes and just feeling love from my team makes it feels great.”
Stroud, who counts Dell among his best friends on the team, raved about how hard he’s worked to get back after all he’s endured in the last few months.
“This football stuff, it seems like it’s everything, but it’s not,” Stroud said. “We’re people and we go through a lot off the field that people don’t know. And as his brother I have to be there for him just like he’s there for me. I’m just proud of him; the word proud isn’t even probably enough to state the feelings that I have for that guy.”
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Coming off a 10-win regular season and an appearance in the divisional round of the playoffs, expectations are high for the Houston Texans in 2024.
However, coach DeMeco Ryans is only concerned with what is happening inside the team.
“We have a lot of room for improvement, and my expectations and what I expect to see from everyone is just get a little better each day,” Ryans said. “If we get a little bit better each day, we'll be exactly where we want to be.”
The day before starting his second training camp as Texans head coach, Ryans told his players they should expect more from themselves than anyone else.
“Nobody on the outside is going to have a bigger expectation than on the inside of the building,” defensive end Will Anderson Jr. said. “Right now, our expectation is just building that building, building a tall building."
After combining for just 11 wins from 2020-2022, Houston surprised many to win the AFC South before beating the Cleveland Browns in the wild-card round. The Texans likely won’t catch anyone by surprise this season.
“It’s gonna be harder,” quarterback C.J. Stroud said. “We have a target on our back this year, and that’s how you should want it.”
The emergence of Stroud is a big reason why so much is expected of the Texans in 2024. The second overall pick of the 2023 draft threw for 4,108 yards and 23 touchdowns on his way to being the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year.
“C.J. has done a really good job this offseason, as a leader when it comes to working with other guys,” Ryans said. “Knowing that he’s not just working by himself, but finding the avenues to get a group together and work together. That’s very important, especially when it comes to timing in the passing game.”
The Texans added talent around Stroud over the offseason, acquiring Pro Bowl receiver Stefon Diggs from Buffalo and Pro Bowl running back Joe Mixon from Cincinnati before the draft.
Mixon will help a Texans rushing offense that averaged just 3.7 yards per carry, fifth worst in the NFL last season, while Diggs, who has finished with more than 100 catches the past four seasons, joins a passing attack that returns its five leading pass catchers.
“I’ve been watching Diggs for a while,” wide receiver Nico Collins said. “I was in middle school, and he was in Minnesota making plays, so it’s just crazy that he’s part of the squad.”
On the other side of the ball, the Texans signed four-time Pro Bowl defensive end Danielle Hunter to a two-year, $49 million contract after a 16 1/2 sack season with the Minnesota Vikings to pair with Anderson, the 2023 AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, on the defensive line.
Expectations are lofty for a team that has not advanced to a conference championship game in its 22-year history, but Stroud and his teammates aren’t shying away from those expectations.
“That’s how it should be,” Stroud said. “The person that always doubts himself probably will never make it to that point, so you gotta have confidence and have a goal and a plan and execute that plan.”