Houston Texans prematurely pulled trigger on Will Fuller’s $10.2M option

Houston Texans wide receiver Will Fuller will be out for the next couple of weeks. The decision to award him a 5th-option seems wildly premature now. Why?

The Houston Texans will be taking on the Tennessee Titans this Sunday and this game may not have the bearing that we expected with our team locking up the division and the Titans playoff hopes being on life support.

It wasn’t necessarily the prettiest of wins back this past Saturday but they were able to get the job done with the heroics of Bradley Roby, Justin Reid, Johnathan Joseph and Jahleel Addae who gave Jameis Winston all he could handle in terms of forcing him to make bad decisions.

Quite honestly, that should’ve been the key game plan — turned out that it was — and worked masterfully, despite the Houston Texans struggles to get in the end zone throughout the regulation of the game.

But you can’t discredit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense — ranked No. 1 going into that game — as they have a ton of talent on that side of the football.  In spite of the offense being an absolute mess, they are able to stay competitive in games because of the flourishing on defense.

Nonetheless, the Houston Texans were able to get the win and move on to the final week of this season with plenty of momentum going into the playoffs.

However, that momentum will be without Will Fuller as he suffered a groin injury against the Bucs.

The Houston Texans have already ruled him out for Sunday’s season finale at NRG Stadium against the Titans and his absence could extend longer, depending on the progress of his recovery.

An MRI did confirm the injury and experts say that it typically takes two to three weeks to recover.  This could have Fuller available to play in the opening game of the playoffs in the best-case scenario.

Moreover, depending on how the Houston Texans advance through the postseason, this may be the last that we see of Fuller this season.

His scratch from this upcoming matchup confirms that he only will appear in 10 games this season, far from the expectations that they had for him going in.

On top of that, the Houston Texans have inked Fuller’s 5th-year option that’s worth $10.2 million

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that will be fully guaranteed for next season.

Although the Houston Texans had to make a decision by mid-March on whether or not offer him the option, I do believe they pulled the trigger too quickly on Fuller.

If they would’ve just let him play out the final season and then discuss a new deal pending the results of this season, I think they wouldn’t feel the sticker shock that they’re getting now for his services.

Fuller can’t do much but prepare his body to be in the best shape it can be but the Houston Texans paid an expensive price for their proverbial luxury sports car — he’s the fastest guy on the team — with shoddy parts.

It remains to be seen if we’ll see Fuller this season but I’m thinking that’s going to be unlikely.  Kenny Stills, DeAndre Carter and to a lesser extent, Keke Coutee should be ready to attempt to fill the void for Fuller.

We’ll see how it goes — go Houston Texans!

Fuller, 25, had caught 47 passes for 659 yards — 14.0 yards per reception — along with three touchdowns and a catch percentage of 68.1 percent in 2019.