Houston Texans: Keke Coutee should be concerned about Kenny Stills

Houston Texans slot receiver Keke Coutee should be concerned about Kenny Stills lurking over his shoulder. Why? Let’s take a dive and find out more.

It’s game day for the Houston Texans and I’m sure that we’re all excited to see this team do work once more as we go through the nuances of the NFL season. For the first time in a while, the Houston Texans will take on an opponent later in the afternoon.

It seems that this franchise typically plays their games at noon; and in some occasions, more often lately, they’ll get a primetime or late afternoon game.

Because of the Houston Texans being in Los Angeles, it makes sense for them to have the 3:25 p.m. CDT kickoff.

This is a game that could be a highly-touted offensive bout between teams and Deshaun Watson will have to do everything he can to try not to let Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram get the best of him.

The offensive line will be working hard today to ensure that those guys are kept at bay. Who will shine among that group of five men today? It certainly remains to be seen but that unit has got to reduce the number of sacks that they’ve allowed that are within their control.

I know it’s tough to control that narrative because Watson does like to hold onto the football a bit longer than other quarterbacks but as long as they stay on top of what they can control, I think things will be fine for the pass protection today.

Also, for the first time in a while, the injury list doesn’t include Keke Coutee, who has been plagued with the injury bug since being drafted in the 4th round by the Houston Texans last season.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another and I’ve come to expect that time must be built-in for injuries for this guy.

After a strong showing in last season’s Wild Card game, a 21-7 beyond-embarrassing loss to the Indianapolis Colts, he is trying to claw his way back onto the field after suffering an ankle in the team’s first preseason game against the Green Bay Packers last month. He already wasn’t off to a great start with a slew of miscues to his credit in that game, to begin with.

Last week’s performance obviously goes to show that he has a lot of rust of knock off going into this season.

Pro Football Focus gave him a 47.8 offensive, 48.4 pass and 56.4 run block grade through 24 snaps in the slot against the Jacksonville Jaguars last week.

In the same cut, Kenny Stills, his newly-acquired teammate/counterpart via trade, recorded a PFF grade-line of 87.6/85.8/58.8 which is a tremendous contrast between the two.

Stills took 14 snaps in the slot and 13 out wide for a total of 27 for the day. Stills has proven that

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no matter where you put him, he can still perform admirably when asked to do so. This follows a similar strong performance against the New Orleans Saints the week previous.

If I were Coutee, I’d be concerned about Stills lurking over my shoulder. The Houston Texans are getting less patient with their draft picks and he could be a casualty just like Martinas Rankin was. Both were drafted in the class.

I was excited about having Coutee onboard but your best ability is your availability and he hasn’t been doing much of that as of late.

We’ll have to see if he improves week-by-week and hopefully, this won’t be a conversation topic of choice. Nonetheless, I have to address it because it’s alarming what I’m seeing out there.

Let’s go Houston Texans!

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Coutee caught two balls for seven yards off six targets after making his debut in the starting lineup last Sunday.

For more grades, advanced statistics and more at Pro Football Focus, subscribe to PFF’s EDGE and ELITE subscriptions at ProFootballFocus.com.

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