NFL Draft 2018 Round 4: Houston Texans Select WR Keke Coutee
The Houston Texans have selected Keke Coutee in Round 4 — 103rd pick — in the NFL Draft. How will this have an effect on the team as a whole? What about potential? Let’s take a look and examine further.
With the 103rd pick in Round 4 of the 2018 NFL Draft, the Houston Texans select:
The bite-sized, 5’11,” 225-pound wide receiver with 29.9″ arms and 8.4″ hands out of Texas Tech is now part of the Houston Texans organization.
This is an excellent pick for the Houston Texans considering he’s coming out an offense that’s famously known as the most aggressive and prolific in the country. If one comes out of Kliff Kingsbury’s offense, then that player knows a thing or two about breakneck pace.
He ran a great 4.43 40-yard dash at the combine and his biggest asset is that he does most of his
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damage from the slot. Although it’s expected that Bruce Ellington would handle those duties this season, if his development is ahead of schedule, we may have found our guy to complement DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller on the receiving corps front.
He has value as a kick returner as well but with the league moving to do away with kickoffs in light of all of the concussions sustained from them, his production in the slot is certainly his calling card.
According to Pro Football Focus, Coutee finished up 2017 with a terrific 87.7 grade. He doesn’t drop balls that often, fumbling 17 of a possible 177 catchable targets. He also is a threat with the deep ball, catching 66.7 percent of his targets, which is definitely good enough to be ranked for 4th in the country.
His 1,088 yards from the slot has him ranked 2nd in nation so it goes to show of versatile this guy is. PFF also notes that he’s going to be handy on those “gadget” plays that Bill O’Brien never likes to run because he doesn’t have the players to do it. We saw more of those this season with Deshaun Watson at the helm but with Coutee in the fold, it’s apparent that this coaching staff is going to go balls to wall, throwing everything they can at their opponent. And rightfully so, huh!
He’s an above-average receiver that’s slightly undersized but I think he can eke dividends out of this offense that we’re about to see in the upcoming season.
Here’s some quick takes from the experts:
Aaron Wilson of the Chron:
Texans fourth-round WR Keke Coutee should immediately push for the starting slot receiver job and make an impact as a kick returner. Dangerous in the open field, makes defenders miss. Ran 4.43 in the 40-yard dash. Caught 93 passes for 1,429 yards and 10 TDs last year
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 28, 2018
"“Key’vantanie Coutee, who goes by his nickname “Keke,” hopes to be the next Texas Tech receiver to make an impact in the NFL, following in the footsteps of Michael Crabtree and Wes Welker. He earned second-team All-Big 12 honors in 2017, ranking fourth in the FBS with 1,429 receiving yards on 93 catches (ranked sixth in FBS) with 10 touchdowns.He finished his career with an 11-reception, 187-yard, one-score effort against South Florida in the Birmingham Bowl. Coutee (pronounced cue-TEE) showed some versatility by returning 10 kickoffs for 315 yards, including a 92-yard touchdown. As a sophomore, he showed great promise, starting two of 12 games played and covering 890 yards and scoring seven touchdowns on 55 receptions.Coutee earned honorable mention all-conference recognition with that production. The four-star recruit from Lufkin, Texas stayed in-state to play ball in the Red Raiders’ wide-open offense. His choice was rewarded as he played in all 13 games, starting two, posting 11 receptions for 105 yards.”"
All in all, it’s going to be thrilling to watch the addition of Coutee to our already solid receiving group. I think that he’ll be able to get acclimated quickly and we’ll be seeing a lot of him come the start of the season. This is clearly my favorite pick of the draft so far!
Next: Texans: Athleticism reigns supreme in Round 3
Coutee had 159 receptions for 2,424 yards — 15.2 yards per catch — along with 17 touchdowns in his three-season career with the Red Raiders.