ALL IS FORGIVEN
How latest Texans violations point to changing tide in football
Dec 8, 2020, 12:49 pm
Things will work out just fine for Will Fuller.Composite photo by Brandon Strange
Texans wide receiver and soon-to-be free agent Will Fuller got popped for performance enhancing drugs and is suspended for the rest of this season and the first game of the 2021 campaign.
One NFL "insider" – these days there are more media types professing to be insiders than outsiders – said Fuller's suspension "certainly will hinder his value in the open market." Tough luck, Will Fuller.
You've heard about Emmanuel Duron, the Edinburg High School defensive lineman who ran back onto the field and clobbered a referee after being ejected from a game last week against Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Early College High School (does that even fit on a jersey?) Duron was arrested, hauled off to jail, and his team was booted from the Texas state playoffs.
Duron's football career is surely over, no college in its right mind or even remotely concerned about its image would ever let him on its team now. Actions have consequences, Emmanuel Duron.
Seriously? Fuller is coming off his career season in his contract year, 57 catches and eight touchdowns. For the first time in his five years with the Texans, he was injury-free and started every game before his early dismissal. Fuller is a deep-threat, touchdown-making, supremely gifted and super-fast receiver.
Fuller, only 26, will get every dollar he would have gotten if his urine had been clean – and probably more.
Duron's collegiate future depends on how many quarterback sacks he's worth, not past transgressions.
The thing about football is, a player's criminal record, lapses in judgment and poor behavior have little bearing on future earnings. In Fuller's case, the suspension might even be a plus - that's six games he won't get injured.
It was only last year when Cleveland Browns' lineman Myles Garrett tore the helmet off Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph and used it as a weapon to whack Rudolph in the head. Garrett was suspended for the rest of the season.
This year Garrett signed a $125 million contract with the Browns, making him one of the highest-paid defensive players in NFL history.
Quarterback Michael Vick went to prison for two years in 2007 after being convicted on dog fighting and animal cruelty charges. You can't get more despicable than that. When he got out of jail, his skills in steep decline, the Eagles signed him to a $100 million contract. After he crapped out in Philadelphia, two more teams, the Jets and Steelers, paid him millions to keep playing.
Someone leaked a video of Ole Miss offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil wearing a gas mask and smoking something from a bong, mind you, on NFL draft day in 2016. This year our Houston Texans signed Tunsil to a $66 million contract extension. The real price of the contract was multiple early-round draft picks. That deal helped put the "former" in former Texans general manager and head coach Bill O'Brien's time in Houston.
Tampa Bay Buccaneer receiver Antonio Brown is fresh off an 8-game suspension for felony burglary with battery charges. Over the years, he's been accused of multiple sexual assaults. He is one of the all-time bad teammates in NFL history. Possibly his biggest crime was appearing on the Masked Singer. With incentives, he could make $2.5 million this season.
Fuller paying the price for his PED suspension? He's closer to being named NFL's Man of the Year. Two years ago, Patriots receiver Julian Edelman was suspended for PEDs and named Super Bowl MVP in the same season. In 2018, 34 players were facing suspension for performance enhancing drugs heading into Week One. Ten players have been suspended for PEDs already this season.
The NFL is hardly a crime-free zone. In just the past five years, 195 NFL players have been arrested or charged with everything from drunk driving, strangulation, felony intimidation, armed robbery, public intoxication, insider trading, discharge of a weapon, illegal drugs and injury to the elderly. If the U.S. prison system had a football team, it would be 5-point favorites over the Houston Texans.
So don't be concerned about Will Fuller getting less money next year because of his PED suspension. The bidding will start around $85 million and reach $100 million. He's at the top of the list of free agent receivers.
As for Emmanuel Duron, the high schooler who physically attacked a referee, no worries there, either. In fact, by the time Duron is ready for the NFL, the Texans may have a first-round draft pick.
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Cowherd divulges private interaction with Texans that should have fans excited
Apr 16, 2024, 11:40 am
C.J. Stroud was still asleep in Los Angeles when the news broke that the Houston Texans were trading for star receiver Stefon Diggs.
When the quarterback picked up his phone and saw several messages from friends asking how he was feeling, he thought they were just checking up on him.
He was still half asleep when he responded to about five such texts with some version of: ‘I’m good fam, how are you?’"
A few minutes later he got up, brushed his teeth, washed his face and checked social media.
“Then I seen the news … and I’m like: ‘oh shoot, that’s what they’re talking about,’” Stroud said with a laugh Monday.
Then, Stroud’s day, of course, went from good to great.
“I was very excited,” he said beaming.
Diggs was traded from Buffalo to Houston April 3, giving last year’s AP Offensive Rookie of the Year another playmaker to throw to and vaulting the Texans into the Super Bowl conversation.
“He’s been a great player in this league for a long time, well respected,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “He’s been a great teammate, he’s been a leader, a captain. And, when you look at him and watch the tape … no one doubts the playmaker that he is. He changes games for the teams that he’s been a part of and we’re anticipating the same thing for us.”
He wasn't made available to reporters on the first day of Houston's voluntary offseason work.
Diggs is a four-time Pro Bowler, who was an All-Pro in 2020. He has had at least 1,000 yards receiving in each of the past six seasons and finished with 1,183 yards receiving last season.
Some have criticized Diggs because he started hot last season, with five 100-yard games in the first six weeks before his production tapered off and he didn’t have another 100-yard game the rest of the way.
Ryans said they aren’t at all concerned about that.
“We look at a player in totality,” Ryans said. “We don’t look at this amount of weeks or that … we look at the entire season, we look at the guy’s entire career, what he’s done. He’s been productive.”
The Texans made a complete turnaround last season thanks in large part to the additions of Stroud and Ryans as well as AP Defensive Rookie of the Year Will Anderson. Houston, which had won just 11 games combined in the three previous seasons, won the AFC South and a wild-card playoff game against Cleveland before falling to the Ravens in the divisional round.
Now they add Diggs to an offense that will also feature a new running back after Joe Mixon was acquired in a deal with Cincinnati. The fresh faces join a group that was led last season by Nico Collins, who had a career-high 1,297 yards receiving, and Tank Dell, who had 709 yards receiving and seven TD grabs before his electric rookie season ended with a broken leg in his 11th game.
Ryans said Dell has recovered from his injury and he’s looking for big things from the third-round pick in his second season.
“That was a devastating loss for us last year, losing him,” Ryans said. “He’s such a dynamic player for us, such an inspiration for myself, for a lot of our team. So, I’m excited to just to see Tank back working with our guys and excited to see him make that same jump that I talked about in Year 1 to Year 2.”
Stroud, the second overall pick in last year’s draft, first met Diggs at the Pro Bowl and has already got to work at building a relationship with his new receiver. Diggs, Dell and Houston receiver John Metchie have already spent time together working out and catching passes from Stroud since the trade.
Stroud ranked eighth in the NFL last season with 4,108 yards passing and he had 23 TD passes with just five interceptions. He’s eager to see how the offense will look with the addition of a player of Diggs' caliber.
“He adds a ton of value to that room,” Stroud said. “He has a lot of wisdom that he carries that I think he’ll spread to other guys. He’s been reaching out to really everybody, and I think that whole room in general is going to be great. I think we’re all going to eat off each other.”
The Texans, who were expected to be among the NFL’s worst teams entering last season, now have the seventh-best odds to win this year’s Super Bowl, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
While that has created a buzz outside of NRG Stadium, Ryans and his team haven't paid it any mind.
“The expectations from outside don’t permeate inside our building,” Ryans said. “What wins games for us is when everybody is really striving, putting the work in to be better. And that’s what it’s all about. We don’t care about expectations. Talk doesn’t win games. We have to go out and play good football when that time comes.”