Houston Texans positional breakdown: Dalton Schultz and his fellow tight ends

The Houston Texans tight end position was a very, very talented position group last year, and they still added to it again in the draft with Cade Stover. What their plan is for 2024, we may not know until we get to training camp, but it’s looking like they’ll be running some two tight end sets this upcoming season. As I mentioned before when Stover was drafted, you don't need four tight ends who can contribute. That likely would force you to cut an extra player somewhere of importance, like for example on the offensive line. Houston could end up trading one of them, and go heavy at the wide receiver position that they’ve done so much work on. 

Depth chart

1. Dalton Schultz
2. Cade Stover
3. Brevin Jordan
4. Teagan Quitoriano
5. Dalton Keene

They have plenty of depth there with Jordan and Quitoriano, who both were on the 53-man roster last season, though neither will probably make the roster this time around. That still leaves them with very good depth that they can rely on if needed. Nobody honestly expected the Texans to take a tight end, especially that early, given the success the returning players had last year. That said, good teams with very minimal holes can make luxury draft picks like this and give their franchise quarterback a familiar face to throw to. 

We all saw what the Stroud-to-Stover connection is capable of in their time at Ohio State together. Stover totaled 406 yards and five touchdowns on 36 receptions with Stroud at the helm. With another five regular season games they get to play in, as college football only has 12 games, those statistics should increase, and we could see a very dominant duo of Schultz/Stover in 2024. There's no reason why Dalton Schultz won't continue the success he had last season, meaning we could have another great duo for defenses to worry about.

Finding guys to match up against this offense is going to keep defensive coordinators up at night, and it won't be because the teams Houston is facing aren't good. But what defense has the manpower to stop three dominant wide receivers, a very good running back, and two productive tight ends? The answer is very few.

Position Grade: A

There isn’t much more you could add to this group. They have a good top two players and another two on the bench who can come in and contribute. While they didn’t need to add another tight end this year, they did anyway and it should work out quite well for both parties. If you’re worried about this pick, don’t be. He’ll be a very solid contributor to this team for a long time.