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Top 5 2013 Fantasy Football Players: Houston Texans
Top Five 2013 Fantasy Football Players: Houston Texans
With another NFL season right around the corner, the fan obsession that is fantasy football is about to dominate sports bars and Twitter feeds around the country. The truth is, there is a large chunk of people out there that care more about what their fantasy football team does over what their actual home football team does during any given season.
I remember being at a Houston Texans game a number of seasons ago, and Lee Evans was eating the secondary alive for two long touchdown passes to put the team down 14-0 early in the first quarter. As expected, the home crowd fell silent. Then you heard one fan shouting, cheering and jumping up and down. He was decked out in Texans gear, too. While fans started complaining for him to sit down and be quiet, he stated "Evans is on my fantasy team!" Just like that, several of the disgruntled fans around him nodded in approval.
That is the sad state of the game these days as guys sink hundreds to thousands of dollars into their fantasy football league, and sometimes more than just one of them. With that in mind, when someone asked me yesterday on Twitter who I would recommend they draft from the Texans, I couldn't help but think this was a terrific topic to write about.
Houston already had a pretty strong offense, and adding some key players over the offseason should only help make them an attractive roster for fantasy addicts. Here are five recommendations I would suggest jumping at should the opportunity find you this year.
Mike Kerns is a Houston Texans writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, “Like” his page on Facebook or add him to your network on Google. You can also subscribe to his Texans podcast on iTunes.
5. Texans Defense
While the Texans defense fell off towards the end of last season, you can't undervalue what a healthy Brian Cushing means to this unit. While he was still on the field, this was as dominant a defense as there was in the league. After his injury, it was J.J. Watt and little else.
Adding some help in the draft and bringing in veteran Ed Reed should get this defense back to where it was in 2011 and help make things easier for the offense, as well as fantasy owners. If they stay healthy on this side of the ball, they'll be in the top five in the league for sure.
4. DeAndre Hopkins
I would rarely recommend you take a rookie in a fantasy draft before he has done anything, but I believe this DeAndre Hopkins is special and is going to transform the Texans offense.
With him already locking down a starting position next to Andre Johnson, Hopkins is going to get plenty of opportunities to make big plays. He'll be a big reason that the Houston offense regains its former explosiveness.
Again, I wouldn't take him very early, but he could be a steal for you in the later rounds.
3. Matt Schaub
Despite all of the talk about how Matt Schaub isn't "elite" and "can't win you the big game," the fact remains that he puts up good stats. In the end, this is all that matters in fantasy football.
Schaub doesn't throw a lot of interceptions and he will put up yards in bunches. With more than just Andre Johnson and some other dude on the receiving end this year, look for Schaub to improve in every statistical category in 2013.
2. Andre Johnson
Every season, we hear about how this will be the year that Andre Johnson begins his decline and every year he puts up big numbers. True, health is a concern for the All-Pro wide receiver, which means he could be available in later rounds at immense value.
Johnson had his best numbers as a pro last year and is capable of breakout performances that give you video game numbers. The only reason you should hesitate is because Kubiak seems to be too scared to call a play for him in the red zone, and his touchdown numbers are never high.
1. Arian Foster
Well, we saved the most obvious one for last. Ignore the reports you're hearing from some of the fantasy experts about how Arian Foster isn't practicing. That's just what Gary Kubiak does with his veterans in training camp and preseason.
Despite people expecting a decline from Foster this year due to his overuse last season, I fully expect a bounce back year for him with Ben Tate back at full health. Regardless of his yardage total, Foster is going to pick up a lot of short yardage touchdowns as he always does.
I wouldn't recommend you take him as the top running back overall, but he is easily in the top three.
