The Houston Texans had a log jam at receiver after drafting Jaelen Strong and Keith Mumphery in the draft. These two draft picks were added to the team after they had signed Cecil Shorts III and Nate Washington in free agency.
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It seemed these four players were all locks to make the team, as was returning star DeAndre Hopkins. Most teams carry only five receivers, so keeping a sixth would only appear logical if the final member of the team was capable of helping in more ways than just in the passing game.
With that in mind it only made sense that a player like Chandler Worthy would have the best shot at making the team as a sixth wide out, but his competition would be the return man from 2014, Keshawn Martin.
The upper hand would appear to favor Worthy simply because the Texans already knew what they had in Martin, and that was a poor return game. Martin was flat out terrible in the return game in 2014 and the Texans seemed as though they handed him the job, as he never even had one return in the preseason.
Worthy on the other hand did have some returns and showed a lot of promise. Worthy had six punt returns and averaged 10.3 yards per return during the preseason. He a 24 yard average on kick returns as well on his three run backs.
Those stats eclipsed the poor performance from Marin last year when he averaged 6.2 yards on punt returns and had only one kick return for 19 yards.
The Texans were outperformed in all aspects of special teams in 2014 and it made no sense to come back with the same returner that performed well below his previous career average.
Martin also recorded only six receptions last year, so it isn’t as if he was a great receiver either. He did manage 12 catches during the preseason, but his average per catch was nine yards, proving he has not improved much in that area either.
In Worthy, you would have a younger kid that would be hungry to prove himself after being undrafted. He also showed amazing speed by posting a 4.38 40yard dash during his Troy pro day.
While it is understood that Worhty is an unknown in the NFL, the fact is the team knows what Martin is. He will not wow you with speed and won’t break the long return to turn the tide in a game. Trying the new, younger player in Chandler Worthy may have given the team that boost that Martin has proven he simply does not provide.