New York Giants Week 10: First Look at Houston Texans’ Offense

The New York Football Giants have officially reached the midway point of their 2022 season, one that has been filled with many pleasant surprises.

In just eight games under their regime, general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll have completely revamped the organization's culture, bringing in a winning mentality that’s shown strongest on Sunday afternoons.

Standing at 6-2 among the top of the pack in the NFC, the Giants are competing in close affairs and consistently finding ways to leave victorious despite a weak receiving core and injuries to critical pieces of the offensive line.

Entering their bye week, the team ranked towards the bottom of the NFL in total points (21st), total yards (26th), and several major passing metrics, largely due to their inefficient aerial attack.

However, all of that has been made up for by their top-5 rushing offense, headlined by Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley, and the stout operations of their defense, which ranked seventh in points, 14th in passing yards, and ninth in passing touchdowns allowed.

On the other side of their respite, New York will return to MetLife Stadium for a two-game homestand and look to build upon their improbable run. With both upcoming opponents holding a combined record of 3-12-1, the Giants will have a strong opportunity to stack two more wins, and that begins with a meeting with the Houston Texans (1-6-1).

Hosting the beleaguered franchise for the first time since 2014, Sunday’s contest with Houston marks the third AFC South opponent the Giants will face this season, and they are already 2-0 against the division on the year. The game marks the sixth overall meeting with the Texans, with New York holding a 4-1 series advantage and winning the last affair back in 2018, 27-22.

In the aftermath of the Deshaun Watson sexual misconduct scandal and coaching turnover resulting from losing campaigns, the Texans’ offensive roster has seen some big changes involving the disposal of a few of their star playmakers. Watson, who was selected in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft by Houston, was traded to the Cleveland Browns in March for a slew of draft compensation. The move came after the quarterback was inactive for all 17 games of the 2021 season.

Before that humongous deal, the Texans also shipped away All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals in the 2020 offseason, a highly criticized move despite landing the Texans two more draft picks for the next two drafts. Using all the draft capital at their disposal, the team is rebuilding from the ground up, but that still shouldn’t discount a handful of young talent on the offensive side of the ball.

Starting at the quarterback position, the Texans are rolling through 2022 with Stanford product Davis Mills. The 24-year-old, who was selected in the third round of the 2021 draft by Houston, earned the starter role after appearing in 13 games for the team last season and finishing with 2,664 passing yards and 18 touchdowns, the fourth-highest total by a Texans quarterback since 2017.

In the backfield, most of the Texans’ rushing production comes from their workhorse in Dameon Pierce. A fourth-round selection by Houston last April, the rookie running back has been one of the biggest young surprises in the league, pushing a total of 148 carries for 678 yards and three touchdowns, the former two statistics ranking him fifth and sixth among his position group through eight games.

The receiving unit is where the Texans have a more expansive field of playmakers. Eight-year veteran Brandin Cooks leads all receivers with 32 receptions for 354 yards and a touchdown and stands as the team’s No. 1 pass-catching threat. Behind him, Nico Collins, Chris Moore, and Phillip Dorsett get in the mix with at least 135 yards of production, but the Texans also have two tight ends in Jordan Akins and O.J. Howard who know how to make plays in the open field.

Looking at their offensive production this season more broadly, the Texans rank among the bottom of the NFL in total points and yards, tallying 133 (28th) and 2,324 (29th), respectively. Part of this stems from their inability to move the football and extend drives, as evidenced by their 30th positioning in total first downs this year.

Throwing the ball through the air, the Texans have a total of 1,509 passing yards (26th), ten touchdowns (17th), and eight interceptions (25th), something that has contributed to seven of their eight contests falling below 20 points. Flip to the running game, and despite Pierce’s valiant rushing efforts, the team ranks 24th or lower in the four major categories.

Recent history and opposing offensive talent may indicate a winnable matchup for the Giants on Sunday. Yet, New York should still be wary about approaching the Texans lightly, considering three of their six matchups have been decided 5 points or less. The Giants are also coming off their bye week, leading to the potential for rust on top of compiling injuries on both sides of the field.

With the prime opportunity in front of the Giants, let’s look at the above playmakers on the Texans offense and what to watch for on Sunday.

Quarterback

With Deshaun Watson sent away to further boil in Cleveland, the Houston Texans spent their 2021 season rotating between two quarterbacks during a mediocre 4-13 campaign. Former gunslinger and current Giants backup Tyrod Taylor started the six games for the team. Still, after injuries and ineffective performances, he was relegated to the sidelines for then-rookie quarterback Davis Mills.

Mills, the 67th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, was thrown into the fire for the remainder of the season, appearing in 13 games (11 starts) with mixed results. The Atlanta native set a franchise rookie record for passing yards (2,664) while ranking second among rookie quarterbacks in touchdowns (16) and completion percentage (66.8%).

Playing with an offense that touched the bottom of the league in every major category, including total yards (32nd), rushing yards (32nd), rushing touchdowns (31st), and yards per rush average (32nd), the quarterback could only muster two wins and an 88.8 rating in a second losing season for the organization. Mills was given another chance to earn the starting role in camp, a job he won over backups Kyle Allen and Jeff Driskel as he looks to power the offense to better results in 2022.

While the Texans sit at a league-worst 1-6-1 record through the first half of the season, Mills’ numbers have improved dramatically in his second professional campaign. He has accumulated 162 completions (62.8%) for 1,656 yards, ten touchdowns, and eight interceptions, the former two numbers ranking him 21st and 16th among quarterbacks, respectively. He’s also averaged 207 yards passing per contest, a slight jump from the 204 yards average he posted last fall.

Coming out of Stanford in 2020, Mills was regarded as a middle-round prospect entrenched in the developmental stages of his playing career, particularly due to his inability to command the offense and play on the fly against changing coverages and heavy blitz looks. Yet, where he lacks in those areas, the quarterback gains ground through his good size and excellent arm talent, allowing him to thrive in play-action passing attacks.

Despite having some collegiate experience playing under center, Mills loves to use his 6-foot-4, 225-pound build, arm, and quality footwork to extend plays toward the boundaries and create big-time completions in the play-action passing scheme. Before the snap, the 24-year-old uses his impressive anticipation to decipher the defense and audible into the play-action game, where he rolls out with square hips, shoulders, and fluid footwork until he reaches the point of the throw.

Mills' arm allows him to dish the football off to the lower levels of his receivers' route trees or take the bold route and challenge Cover 2 windows along the sidelines or deep middle. The crispness of his throw is also quite evident, as the quarterback moves his arm in a very smooth motion and uses a lower body twitch to add velocity and a tight zip into his spiral.

However, the story of Mills’ talents becomes quite different during possessions, where he remains heavily grounded in the pocket. Facing a pressure-heavy look in the Giants defense, Mills may struggle with his lack of upfield mobility and escapability in the backfield, leading to a potential sack payday for New York’s interior defenders. If lucky, he holds enough strength to ward off a rusher off the edge but will become a sitting duck if the front wall collapses.

A heavy dose of pressure from Wink Martindale’s crew could also wreak havoc on Mills’ already suspect pass timing and decision-making in the pocket. More often than not, he takes little time to read route combinations and allow them to mature, instead quickly dishing the ball into the slot before his target cuts out into their initial break. Add in a blitz or two, and Mills could foolishly fling the football into populated coverages and easy turnovers heading the other way.

Mills is a relatively standard quarterback with modest operation time and early promise as a producer leading the comfortable play-action attack. His impatience in the pocket, lack of discipline, and questionable ball placement could get the best of him though, making things interesting as the Giants' defense looks to force its first multi-turnover affair since Week 2 against Carolina.

It’s a contest where the Giants appear to have development and experience leaning in their favor at the quarterback position. Yet before they get ahead of themselves in anticipation of this matchup, they should also remember the roots of their gunslinger, who once shares similar woes as the younger player on the other side.

Running Backs

Shift the focus to the Texans’ running backs department, and only one player stands atop the rest at the midway point of the 2022 season—rookie Dameon Pierce out of the University of Florida.

A Bainbridge, Georgia native and a fourth-round selection in April by the Texans, Pierce has turned out to be an under-the-radar steal for the team and a key reason they have elevated the rushing attack out of the doldrums it lay flat in last season. In 2021, the Texans had four different running backs push the football at least 50 times, but not one crossed 450 yards of production that year. Pierce is on pace to double last fall’s leading number in just eight games alone, posting 148 attempts for 678 yards (4.6 average per rush) and three touchdowns.

The fact that Pierce went untouched until early in the fourth round is already incredible, given the numbers that rank him at the top of rookie running backs and sixth among all ball carriers in the NFL entering week 10. He was also one of the most productive players in college, scoring 16 touchdowns in 2021 despite having low usage in Florida’s rushing attack.

However, the 22-year-old’s intangibles on the field should have jumped off the page with scouts earlier. At his core, Pierce is a 5’10”, 218-pound back with what one analyst dubbed a “grown-man physique,” upper-level weight room strength, and springy hips and feet coming out of the backfield.

From watching bits of Pierce’s tape in 2021, he blasts out of his stance towards the handoff like a coiled spring waiting to unleash itself on the opposing defensive front. Before the snap or afterward, Pierce excels at processing fronts quickly and finding the open lane where he can create additional yardage with even the smallest windows. It’s rare to see Pierce succumb to pressure at the line of scrimmage, as he will charge through it and force his run blockers to advance if it means moving the football an extra couple of yards.

While most of his runs come on the inside, the rookie can potentially cause damage if he can extend the rush to the outside edge. Pierce is a little weak on change-of-direction transitions and escaping the pocket horizontally toward the tackle's outside shoulder. Still, with open space achieved, he becomes an urgent runner with a twitchy downfield burst.

Maintaining his tempo and speed down the hash marks, Pierce brings back his violent rushing style to trample over any oncoming defenders cutting off the running lane. He takes on contact extremely well with his sturdy legs and outstanding frame balance, shedding off pesky secondary players to continue his progression upfield.

As long as Pierce is the starting running back for the Texans—and it appears he has a future at that position—it’s going to take a gang-tackling affair from the Giants’ interior defense to prevent him from dominating the ground game on a Sunday. The Texans also like to occasionally deploy Pierce out of the slot and work him over the seam against cover linebackers. Still, he has a weakness in hand usage when asked to be an extra pass protector in the pocket.

Running down the rest of the Texans' depth chart, the only other ball carrier with even an ounce of production in the first half of the season is Rex Burkhead, the 32-year-old veteran in his ninth professional campaign. A former Bengals draft choice in 2013 and four-year Patriot, Burkhead has spent the past year and a half in Houston, where he’s accumulated 508 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

Entering week 10, Burkhead has barely been involved in the Texans’ ground attack, holding just 23 carries for 81 yards and zero touchdowns. He’s also averaged 3.5 yards per rush, the third-lowest amount for that category in his last five seasons.

Wide Receivers

Following the offensive impact of Dameon Pierce in the backfield, the Houston Texans’ next productive bunch is a trio of wide receivers in Brandin Cooks, Nico Collins, and Chris Moore.

The aforementioned Cooks leads the group, an eighth-year receiver who was the subject of trade discussions leading up to the trade deadline after his request to be traded from the organization. The Texans did not budge on his request, electing to retain the disgruntled Cooks, who has been their No. 1 target this season.

Before arriving in Houston, Cooks was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 2014, where he spent three years in the Bayou and posted two 1,100-yard receiving seasons with a combined 20 touchdowns. He also spent one season in New England in 2017 and was a member of the Los Angeles Rams the next two seasons, where he appeared in 30 games and had his fourth consecutive 1,000-yard rushing campaign in 2018.

Through two seasons and eight games with the Texans, Cooks has compiled 203 completions for 2,541 yards and 13 touchdowns to serve as one of the most productive receivers in Houston since DeAndre Hopkins's departure in 2020. He’s been an extremely durable receiver dating back to his high school days and has missed just four games in the last five years.

While the 29-year-old has some utility as an outside receiver, he has made a name for himself, serving as a speedy, nifty-footed slot option with great run-after-catch ability. No matter the short out, medium post, or deep vertical route, Cooks confidently explodes out of the slot and competes down his initial progression using his quick hands and light feet to create separation.

Once he reaches the stem of his progression, Cooks excels at quickly sinking his hips with a light but strong lower frame to shed off press coverage defenders before popping back up and breaking into his route with even bigger separation windows to make a play. In the open field, especially coming across the middle of pushing vertically, Cooks will use his sharp field vision and athleticism to adjust and track down the football, even if it means catching in traffic.

As a result of his competitiveness, Cooks isn’t afraid to play against the taller, top-ranked corners in the league. If he’s coming back in on a dig route or playing the deep game with man coverage defenders or incoming zone stoppers, Cooks will use his 36” vertical jump combined with quick hands, concentration, and boundary awareness to extend himself and make a contested catch.

Give him the slightest window of opportunity after the catch, and Cooks will turn any short throw into a long haul toward the endzone. He boasts elusiveness, creativity, and excellent vision after the catch, which makes him hard to bring down at the first level.

Cooks is questionable to play on Sunday after missing the Texans’ Week 9 affair at home against the Eagles. If he can play, expect all these intangibles to come with him.

Nico Collins sits just below Cooks as the No. 2 wide receiver in the Texans’ corps. An alumnus of the University of Michigan, Collins was drafted by the Texans 89th overall in the third round of the 2021 draft and has been one of their developmental projects on the offensive side of the football.

In his rookie campaign, Collins appeared in 14 games and accumulated 33 receptions on 60 targets for 446 yards and one touchdown, the second-highest performance by a Texans’ pass catcher last season. Flipping to 2022, he finds himself in the same ranking with 18 receptions for 305 yards, and his average catch of 16.9 yards ranks fourth-best among the pool of active NFL receivers.

Collins shares a lot of the same intangibles as his teammate in Cooks. Still, the key differences are his heavy use on the outside and excellent build that enables him to succeed at attacking the third level of opposing coverage.

Despite holding a 6’4”, 215-pound frame, the second-year player showcases a unique set of hands, build-up speed, and competitive nature to battle with the best press coverage defenders down the sideline. Coming off the snap, he explodes into powerful strides and is an aggressive hand fighter at the first point of contact until separation.

Whether he is running the short comeback route to move the chains or breaking vertically in search of double-digit yardage, Collins reveals his separation talent later than most players. Still, he boasts solid flexibility, focus, and vertical build-up that allow him to secure contested catches underneath or chase down the 50/50 deep ball at the third level.

He is also a player unfazed by physical contact through the catch, deploying his wide catch radius and jump-ball traits to secure the catch away from defenders with soft hands. Very rarely does he allow opposing corners to make a play on the football before it reaches his hands, meaning it will be on the Giants defense to ensure clean tackling to prevent another deep threat after the catch.

If there is one thing Collins struggles with, it’s the timing it takes him to slip away from certain pesky press coverage defenders. Even with his size, Collins can sometimes get stuck in the press for too long, leading to a blown-up vertical route. On intermediate routes, he can be susceptible to not creating enough window space from the corner, taking away the potential for a catch-and-run target at the second level.

After Collins, the seventh-year veteran Chris Moore rounds out the top-three receivers on the Texans’ roster. A native of Tampa, Florida, the 29-year-old Moore was drafted in the fourth round of the 2016 draft by the Baltimore Ravens where he spent four seasons but only surpassed 200-yards receiving in one of them. He scored just four touchdowns in that span before leaving in 2019, spending one year as a free agent, and signing with Houston in 2021.

The Cincinnati product appeared in 12 contests during his debut season with the Texans, making 21 catches for 227 yards and two touchdowns. In eight games this year, he stands at 14 receptions for 171 yards and two touchdowns, the latter leading all Texans’ wide receivers.

Coming out of college, Moore was another prospect labeled “developmental” because of his deficiencies in catching the football at the lower levels of the field. He has some size and speed to give the Texans another vertical threat in the deep game, but he is average with his hands and route running in the intermediate range.

Moore can occasionally settle himself down in the middle of the field and roam to and from open windows to draw the quarterback’s attention. If a contested ball is thrown in his vicinity, Moore possesses great ball tracking, vertical leap, and long arms to bring down the contested catch. Give him some space to adjust and turn upfield, and he will lay his north of 200-pound frame to balance contact for extra yardage after the catch.

Lastly, at fourth on the Texans’ receiving production is Phillip Dorsett, the former 2015 first-round pick out of Miami. A seven-year veteran and AFC South fixture, Dorsett had spent two seasons with the Colts, three with the Patriots, and one with the Jaguars and Seahawks before arriving in Houston last fall.

Dorsett has struggled to impact his team’s offense over the past few years, as he hasn’t recorded over 200 yards receiving since departing New England in 2019. He signed with Houston during the 2021 season but only appeared in three games with six catches and 107 yards receiving. In seven games thus far, the 29-year-old has tallied seven receptions for 135 yards and one touchdown.

Tight Ends

The Houston Texans’ base offensive formation commonly features three wide receivers on the outsides, with a single tight end attached to the end of the front line as an additional pass protector. Yet, the team still likes to get a couple of different players involved in their pass-catching schemes, and that’s where Jordan Akins and O.J. Howard enter the picture.

Akins, a former third-round pick in 2018 by the Texans’, is in his fifth season with the organization, where he currently stands as the leading pass catcher in the tight ends department. Through his five campaigns, the UCF product has garnered 125 receptions for 1,419 yards and four touchdowns, with his best season coming in 2019. In 2022, he holds 11 receptions for 159 yards and a touchdown while averaging 14.5 yards per catch, third-best among Texans receivers.

Between the two tight ends in their deck, Akins better serves as the Texans’ pass-catching guy. Leaving the college ranks, he was praised for his size and flashy ability to challenge man coverage down the field. As an athlete that saw an average of 20.3 yards per catch in his final season with the Knights, he has the talent and hands to take a short throw and turn it into a first down or more.

Akins is a very mobile tight end off the line of scrimmage and does well at separating himself and creating throwing windows in the middle levels of zone coverage. He comes off the snap with a low base and good forward lean, quickly turning that into an accelerated burst as he breaks off the stem of his route. With a minor league baseball background to his advantage, he unloads his excellent vision, natural hands, wide catch radius, and speed to track down leads balls on crossing routes over the top of the second level.

In addition to that, Akins can become a deep-range threat if he manages to get to the third level, where he deploys good contact balance or wiggle to do extra damage after the catch. Don’t expect him to do much as a pass or run blocker, given it wasn’t in his background at UCF or his previous seasons. That job is exactly where his teammate in Howard enters the fold.

Drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 19th overall in 2017, Howard is in his first season with the Texans after accumulating 119 receptions for 1,737 yards and 15 touchdowns in five seasons as the former team’s starting option at tight end. His career-high outing came in 2018 when he secured 34 catches for 565 yards and five touchdowns while wearing the pewter and red.

In just eight games with Houston, Howard is the second most productive tight end on the roster with eight receptions for 110 yards and two touchdowns, the latter a number he hasn’t crossed since his record sophomore season. The 27-year-old Alabama product has some flashes of athleticism and talent to be an elite playmaker in passing schemes. Still, he runs into trouble regarding the sharpness and consistent effort involved in his open-field activity.

That is why since joining the Texans during the offseason, he has earned some reps in the passing attack but has been deployed more heavily on the front line as an additional pass protector. At his base, Howard is gifted with long arms, massive hands, and 251 pounds of muscle mass, allowing him to compete in a ton of in-line blocking battles.

While he can sometimes play passively in the open field, Howard blocks with a consistent demeanor from the moment of the snap to the final whistle. Once he locks into the defender’s frame, his strong hands stay clenched inside with arms extended to sustain the block into the second level. Instead, he doesn’t garner many penalties and keeps his feet moving to prevent the rusher from putting a spin move on him and drawing suspect contact calls.

On occasion, Howard will be shifted into Akins’ pass-catching role with the Texans using sophomore Brevin Jordan as the team’s front-line blocker on the edge. Jordan, Houston’s 2021 fifth-round pick, has appeared in five games this year with just six receptions and 32 yards to his 2022 resume.

Either way, expect the tight ends department to impact the Texans’ total production Sunday, a theme the Giants defense has become acquainted with over their last few contests against tight-end-inclusive teams.

Offensive Line

Since the conclusion of their miserable 2021 campaign, the Houston Texans front office has taken the roster through a massive sweep of changes as the franchise attempts to turn the leaf to a new chapter and win back the favor of their dissatisfied fanbase. Not surprisingly, that change has encompassed the burdensome offensive line.

Last fall, the Texans’ offensive line went through one of its roughest seasons in recent history. It was extremely difficult to grow any form of camaraderie and consistency within the group, as each week seemed to carry with it a new starting formation. After the season opener against Jacksonville in early September, the same five starters would only account for 46 of the team’s 85 possible starts. Only one player started 12 or more games over the entire year.

Thus, as the offseason period commenced, the team made a slew of transactions to bring back their more durable veterans and recruit a couple more pieces that could ensure the offense would at least hold solid, experienced protection up front. The result is one of the more veteran-level lineups in the NFL that will fight the entire way to keep the less mobile Davis Mills upright.

Lining up at the left tackle position is seventh-season pro Laremy Tunsil. A former 2016 first-round pick by the Miami Dolphins, the Ole Miss alum spent four seasons in the Sunshine State before migrating to Houston via trade in 2019, where he played 262 snaps for 26.4% of the position’s total timeline during the 2021 season.

Tunsil has seen his career revitalize after off-field behavior tarnished his reputation in Miami, earning consecutive Pro Bowl nods in his first two years as a Texan and one of the most proficient left edge blockers across the league. His 2021 campaign was cut short due to a thumb injury, so the team’s highest-paid offensive lineman is on a mission to stay healthy and let his greatest impacts come with his top-tier pass protection on Mills’ left blindside.

Next to Tunsil at the left guard position stands the sole rookie member of the Texans’ starting line—Kenyon Green. The 21-year-old stands at a staggering 6-foot-4 and 323 pounds and was selected 15th overall by the organization out of Texas A&M. Playing a few seasons for the Aggies, Green was a two-time All-American guard and will be expected to bring back a mauling run-block presence to the Houston interior gaps.

As long as he remains in the left guard role, Green is more than comfortable knocking opposing 300-pound defenders backward without much effort required. He likes to come off the snap and scoop up the defender on his backside on zone runs, pushing them laterally away from the ball carrier and opening up holes at the interior gaps. He’s also very quick and nimble on his feet to thrive on pull schemes, where he quickly climbs to the second level and mashes opponents at the point of attack.

Holding down the middle of the line is fifth-year center Scott Quessenberry. The UCLA product was selected in the fifth round of the 2018 draft by the Los Angeles Chargers, where he spent four seasons and played in 63 games (10 starts) for the Bolts. In March, he signed a one-year deal with the Texans, fulfilling the triumvirate of Quessenberry brothers to don the team’s uniform.

Moving over to the right side of the line, A.J. Cann assumes responsibility for the right guard position. One of three veteran offensive line additions by the Texans, the South Carolina product comes over after being drafted in 2015 and spending his first seven seasons in the AFC South with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Texans’ solving their consistency issue should come easy with Cann at right guard. The 31-year-old started at least 13 games yearly from his rookie season through the COVID epidemic of 2020. In 2021, he suffered an early season-ending injury that forced him to miss the last baker’s dozen games of the year. Yet, the Texans are confident in his ability to rebound in 2022, where he has already appeared in all eight games and been a critical lead blocker for Dameon Pierce in the run game.

Fourth-year lineman Tytus Howard returns to the Texans to round out the starting line in the right tackle hole. Drafted 23rd overall by the team in 2019, Howard had his fifth-year rookie option exercised by Houston after they retained Tunsil for the left tackle spot and turned a blind eye towards selecting a right tackle in last April’s selections.

The 2022 season will be Howard’s first campaign earning a large chunk, if not all, of his reps on the right side of the football. After playing in 14 games with some right tackle snaps in 2020 before going on IR that December, he spent his 2021 outing shifting between left tackle and guard with 244 (22.9%) and 683 (64.1%) snaps, respectively.

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