We ran a piece on Tuesday about how Kevin Walter's hands were underrated, and it turns out he wasn't the only Texan who has been putting in yeoman's work without getting recognition for it. Backup tight end Joel Dreessen, who started for much of last season as Owen Daniels continued to struggle with injuries, is Pro Football Focus' highest ranked pass-catcher of the last three years by their numbers:
↵↵↵You'll recall that Kevin Walter topped the wide receiver charts, and now we have two Texans tight ends in the top four. Somewhat surprisingly, it's the lesser known Joel Dreessen who leads the way, after only dropping three passes in three years. Meanwhile, Owen Daniels' numbers took a hit in a sub-standard 2010 as he worked his way back from injury and fell to fourth. Not terrible by any stretch, but the Owen Daniels of 2008 and 2009 would have had the lowest Drop Percentage of any tight end. In any case, those Texans just don't drop a lot of balls.
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One is an outlier, three is a trend. Now the only question is how much of the Texans high-percentage offense is because of the receivers and how much of it is Matt Schaub being cannily accurate.
↵Too bad they haven't been this successful with their late round picks and free agent signings on defense.
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