Instant fantasy football takeaways from Texans-Cowboys Monday Night Football

On By Littum

• Nico Collins‘ returns: The Houston Texas‘ top wide receiver was back and instantly boosted the team’s offense.

• CeeDee Lamb returns: Lamb had one of the worst games of his career last week with 21 yards, but he scored 17 PPR points as Dallas Cowboys‘ main source of attack in this game.

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Expected reading time: 5 minutes

Focusing on player usage and stats, PFF’s fantasy football recap breaks down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024.

Houston Texas @ Dallas Cowboys

  • Joe Mixon: 20 carries, 109 yards, 3 touchdowns, 2 receptions, 43 receiving yards
  • CeeDee Lamb: 8 receptions, 93 yards

Nico Collins returning to the Texans: The Texans’ star receiver was on the blink but led the team in receiving production.

Collins spent four weeks on injured reserve with a hamstring injury and was inactive last week. He returned against the Texans and would have scored a 77-yard touchdown on the first play of the game, but an improper downfield pass penalty negated the catch-and-run.

The Texans opted to start Collins as he ran just 13 of the first 34 plays over the Texans’ first five drives. He was in rotation with Xavier Hutchinson for the X receiver spot and was consistently on the field on third downs over that span. Collins was on the field for the two-minute drill to end the first half and played more often in the second half.

In recent weeks, the Texans have fallen into a general pattern of Robert Woods plays as Z receiver in sets with two receivers, Tank Dell to have that role in three-receiver sets and John Metchie III to play in slot in sets with three receivers. Collins’ return did not disrupt this strategy.

Given Collins’ increased playing time as the game went on, it’s safe to count on him playing at least 70% of the offensive snaps going forward. He usually played between 70%-80% last season. The hope is that he will be back to playing 80%-85% of the snaps that he did at the start of the season.

Rico Dowdle earns and loses function back role: Dowdle dominated snaps early in the game, but was replaced more often later.

Dowdle played 71% of the Cowboys’ offensive snaps in Week 9. That dropped to 52% last week, but only because the Cowboys were in a lot of passing situations where Hunter Luepke is the primary spine. The big takeaway is that the Cowboys stopped rotating their running backs by driving.

Everything looked strong for Dowdle heading into the night. Head coach Mike McCarthy declared him “lead back,” and the team did not activate Dalvin Cook from the practice squad for the second week in a row. Luepke was inactive with a calf injury, so Dowdle was expected to get his biggest role of the season.

He played 30 of 33 snaps on the first five drives. He was only off the field for three third-downs, but he also stayed on the field for a couple of other third-downs. However, Dowdle only averaged about 2 yards per game. carry. This led to Ezekiel Elliott takes the last drive of the half. In the second half, both Elliott and Deuce Vaughn became more involved. Vaughn had been either a healthy inactive or a special-teams player since Week 5.

Dowdle will likely remain Dallas’ leading back, but Luepke should regain his passing-game role once he’s healthy. Additionally, other running backs will likely get opportunities if the run game fails.

Jonathan Mingo makes his Cowboys debut: The former Carolina Panther was held without a catch in a backup role.

The Cowboys traded for Mingo two weeks ago and made him inactive last week. This week, Mingo was active Jalen Brooks as a healthy inactive. Brooks had played at least 35 snaps in each of the Cowboys’ last five games as their third receiver, with Brandin Cooks on injured reserve. He’s caught just eight passes for 107 yards and no touchdowns on the season, so Dallas was ready for a change.

Sixth round rookie Ryan Flournoy stepped into the third wide receiver role for this game. He caught a pass for 15 yards. Mingo and KaVontae Turpin was used as the primary backup, and Turpin stole the show with a 64-yard touchdown reception.

Ideally, Mingo will earn more playing time as the season progresses as the Cowboys’ third wide receiver spot appears open, at least until Cooks returns. With Cooks back, Mingo won’t have a strong path to playing time.

Monitor Jake Ferguson‘s health: Ferguson suffered a concussion early in the match and was immediately ruled out.

Ferguson played seven of 10 possible snaps on the first two drives. He caught a pass for 11 yards. After the injury, Luke Schoonmaker and Brevyn Spann-Ford took over. Both tight ends became favorite targets for Cooper Rushbut they were used interchangeably. There were no strong trends for their situational usage, with each largely taking a few games before rotating.

The Cowboys play again in six days, so Ferguson will have one less day to make it through the concussion protocol. If he misses time, it’s probably best to leave the Cowboys’ other options on the waiver wire. Their rotation makes it difficult to trust any of the players.

Various notes

  • Cowboys placed quarterback Dak Prescott on injured reserve after undergoing season-ending hamstring surgery last week.
  • Dallas activated the tight end Princeton Fant out of the training squad for this match. He played a few snaps after Ferguson’s injury in several tight end sets.
  • Eleven Cowboys conceded at least one goal in this contest, which was tied by a team in one game this season.
  • Dameon Pierce was active after missing the past two games with a groin injury. He returned to being the primary backup on early downs.
  • The Texans released the running back JJ Taylor to make room for more defensive players.
  • With Nico Collins back, wide receiver and returner Steven Sims was a healthy inactive.
Table notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these games removed.

• Goals may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely deviation would be from a clearly thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the closest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carrier is only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles do not count toward the total number of carries in the game.