John Metchie was not someone on our shortlist for "underperforming players" during the preseason. If anyone was going to disappoint, it was likely to be Xavier Hutchinson. The sixth-rounder struggled in 2023 and failed to make any sizeable impact on the game. Partly due to the emergence of Tank Dell and Nico Collins. Now that the receiver room is arguably the most talented and the deepest it has ever been, guys like Metchie and Hutchinson needed to rely on more than being young and full of potential.
A fellow Texans' site, Battle Red Blog, agrees and has suggested that Metchie is on the verge of being cut. That would be a rather shocking announcement to hear, considering that Metchie was a second-round pick in 2022. He was a highly touted player coming into the Texans organization, but illness and injuries slowed and even stalled his career so far.
He returned to the field in 2023, but he only played a handful of snaps across 16 games. He did catch 16 passes for 158 yards but was only on the field for around about 300 snaps across the entire season. He was not someone that the team factored into their day-of plans very often. It wouldn't be until the last two weeks that he would have a large amount of focus on the game plan. He averaged nearly 40 snaps across those last two games, making it the biggest concerted effort he's had on a game in his whole career.
Despite the abundance of opportunities, he was rarely targeted and across those two games only caught two passes for 13 yards. So clearly, even when he played significant snaps last year, he wasn't a threat.
That lack of impact has carried over to the preseason, where he continues to struggle to get open and become a true threat for the Texans. With the team no longer in a position where they can afford to carry a guy who has potential, a decision will have to be made on what his future is with the team. He'll likely be given until the last preseason game to prove that he's better than what we've seen, but it's looking more and more likely that he won't make the team.
And that would be a truly sad way for his tenure with the club to end.