Will the Houston Texans regret passing up on Josh Doctson?

In the 2016 NFL Draft the Houston Texans used the 21st overall pick on Will Fuller and the following pick was used on Josh Doctson, did they make a mistake?

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The general consensus among Houston Texans fans was that the team was going to take an offensive player with their first pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. When they traded their 22nd overall pick to move up one spot, that’s exactly what they did.

Houston chose Notre Dame wide receiver Will Fuller, which is a player who was actually selected in many mock drafts leading up to the big day. However, many of those mock drafts didn’t have Josh Doctson or Laquan Treadwell still on the board.

Doctson, the kid from TCU, was the player taken with that 22nd pick that Houston surrendered as the Washington Redskins scooped up the talented Horned Frog receiver.

At first glance, it seems like a wash as each player heads to the NFL with a lot of positive reviews, but is it really a wash?

The Texans focused on gaining speed this offseason by drafting not just Fuller, but also wide receiver Braxton Miller and running back Tyler Ervin. Did they let that focus deter them from taking a more polished receiver?

Doctson was a true go-to-guy at TCU who used his size and leaping skills to bring in passes at a high rate. The one knock on him coming into the draft was that he was coming off an injury, but according to his draft profile on NFL.com, one NFL coach felt like he was one of the only safe receivers in the draft.

"“Pure technician. He’s really good with those routes and he’s the best at getting it up top. When he got hurt, TCU was done. They looked lost without him. He’s a safe receiver for the first (round) and one of the only ones.” — AFC wide receivers coach"

As for Fuller, he’s a true deep threat that has issues with being a body catcher and dropping passes. The move to take Fuller may eventually prove to be the right one, but there’s some fear that Houston was short sighted in the move, much like the Dallas Cowboys were in 2008 when they selected Arkansas running back Felix Jones with the 22nd overall pick.

Dallas wanted to get some speed on offense and took the complimentary back to be a change of pace guy. With their eyes fixated on Jones big play ability the team passed up running backs like Chris Johnson, Ray Rice, Matt Forte and Jamaal Charles.

All of those players went on to have much better careers than Jones. Also, Johnson, Forte and Charles are still going strong in their careers whereas Felix hasn’t been in the league since 2013.

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Hopefully the Texans did their due diligence on Fuller and he proves to be the right choice. He doesn’t have to be better than Doctson for the team to avoid criticism, but he needs to be more than a compliment to fellow wide out DeAndre Hopkins.