The Texans elevated fullback Jakob Johnson from the practice squad for Monday Night Football, the team announced.
It is the second consecutive week the Texans have used an elevation for Johnson to play.
Dalton Schultz and Harrison Bryant are the only tight ends available tonight, so Johnson also will serve as the third tight end.
Johnson played seven offensive snaps and eight on special teams in Week 1.
He is in his seventh NFL season, having appeared in 71 games with 35 starts for the Patriots, Raiders, Giants and Texans. Johnson has 19 career receptions for 105 yards and one touchdown. He also has 11 career tackles.
The Buccaneers are facing the Texans on Monday night and the trip is giving wide receiver Mike Evans some bad memories of their last trip to Houston.
That came in Week 9 of the 2023 season and Evans, who is from Galveston, had a lot of family in the crowd to watch the game. Any hopes of celebration were dashed when Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud threw a touchdown to wide receiver Tank Dell with six seconds left in the game.
It was Stroud’s fifth touchdown pass of the game and it made the Texans 39-37 winners in a contest that still bothers Evans.
“I was pissed, I was hurting,” Evans said, via Mark Skol Jr. of FOX13 in Tampa. “It hurt. It was one of the worst losses I’ve had in my career. Hopefully we can get some payback.”
Evans had four catches for 87 yards in that loss to the Texans and he’ll be trying to do a little extra this time around to avoid returning to Tampa with another loss under his belt.
Former Colts and Panthers head coach Frank Reich earned his first win as interim head coach at Stanford on Saturday night — by beating Boston College and former Texans head coach Bill O’Brien, whom Reich had coached against seven times in the NFL.
Stanford’s 30-20 win over Boston College was the Cardinal’s first win since Stanford General Manager Andrew Luck named Reich the school’s interim head coach. Stanford ha an ugly start to the season with losses to Hawaii and BYU but looked much better against Boston College. Both Stanford and Boston College are now 1-2.
Reich was 5-2 coaching against O’Brien in the NFL, with the Colts winning four of their six regular-season matchups against the Texans in the three years both men coached in the AFC South, and Reich’s Colts also winning once in the playoffs.
Luck was hired to rebuild Stanford’s football program, and he hired Reich, his former Colts head coach, after firing Troy Taylor in March. It’s unclear whether Reich will eventually have the “interim” tag removed from his title and stay beyond this season, but he took a first step toward righting the ship on Saturday.
The Texans ruled out three players for Monday night’s game against the Buccaneers.
Center Jake Andrews will not play after missing practice all week with an ankle injury he suffered in Week 1. Jarrett Patterson is set to take over for him against Tampa.
The Texans will also be without wide receivers Braxton Berrios and Christian Kirk for the second straight game. Both wideouts are recovering from hamstring injuries and have not been participating in practice.
Nico Collins, Xavier Hutchinson, second-round pick Jayden Higgins, third-round pick Jaylin Noel, and Justin Watson are the healthy wideouts on the 53-man roster.
Right tackle Luke Goedeke was back on the practice field for the Buccaneers on Saturday.
Goedeke did not practice at all on Thursday or Friday because of a foot injury. His return to the field to close out the team’s practice week was enough to leave the door open for him to play against Houston on Monday night.
Head coach Todd Bowles said at his press conference that Goedeke will be listed as questionable. Bowles also confirmed that they won’t have their left tackle Tristan Wirfs, who returned to practice this week but will miss another game as he recovers from knee surgery.
Graham Barton moved from center to left tackle last Sunday and will remain there. Charlie Heck would likely start in Goedeke’s place if he can’t go on Monday night.
Wide receiver Chris Godwin has been ruled out as well. Godwin joined Wirfs in a practice return, but needs more time to ramp up after last year’s season-ending ankle injury.
