Houston Texans

Wide receiver Tank Dell’s long comeback is set to reach its finish line against the Giants in Week 7.

Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans told reporters on Monday that the team plans to activate Dell and have him in the lineup for their home game against the NFC East club.

Dell has not played in a game since suffering a severe knee injury in December 2024. He was designated to return to practice a couple of weeks ago and will continue to practice this week ahead of his planned return to game action.

Dell’s return will come a week after Marvin Harrison Jr.'s Texans debut and the addition of the two wideouts as complements to Nico Collins gives the receiving corps a much different and much deeper look than it had over the first month of the season. If Dell can help them get a win against the Giants, it will also give the team three straight victories and a much rosier outlook than it had during an 0-4 start.

Who will be behind center when the Giants take on the Texans in Week 7?

While Jameis Winston has started since Jaxson Dart went down with a knee injury, that could change after J.J. McCarthy’s impressive fourth quarter in Sunday’s loss to the Saints.

Head coach John Harbaugh did not directly say who would start one way or another. That kind of answer from a coach on a Monday can often signal change is coming later in the week.

“We’re working through that now — honing in on a decision,” Harbaugh said on Monday, via SNY, when asked directly if the team would stick with Winston for the upcoming week.

What’s going into those discussions?

“Well I would probably say like absolutely every other personnel decision we make, what gives us the best chance to win the football game at this given time or what combination of players, schemes, and things like that, give us the best chance, in this case, to in this case move the ball, score points, protect the football, etc.,” Harbaugh said. “All the things that help us win. Whatever it is that furthers us and helps us, just to use the basic obvious point, that’s what we want to do.”

Winston has appeared in five games with four starts since Dart went down during the Week 2 loss to the Rams. He’s completed 57.0 percent of his passes for 957 yards with seven touchdowns and five interceptions.

He was 14-of-26 for 152 yards with a touchdown and two picks before McCarthy replaced him on Sunday.

McCarthy completed 11-of-21 passes for 243 yards with a touchdown and a pick on Sunday, leading the Giants to three scoring drives in the fourth quarter.

Through the first five games of the 2026 season, Giants running back Cam Skattebo had 91 touches. In game six, a 34-27 loss to the Saints, Skattebo had zero.

After a game in which Skattebo was on the field for six plays and never touched the ball, coach John Harbaugh told reporters it wasn’t intentional.

“It was not by design,” Harbaugh told reporters. “I mean, all those guys were taking equal reps in the first half. We were trying to see who could make something happen, who could kinda get a hot hand and earn it. Nobody’s really taking the bull by the horns. . . . It wasn’t by design for him not to carry the ball. It was just, when he was in there, we didn’t call any runs.”

Still, Harbaugh had said “we’ll see” and “we’ll find out” when asked whether Skattebo’s key overtime fumble in Week 5 (his fourth of the season) would result in reduced opportunities.

And it’s not as if the other tailbacks took “the bull by the horns.” Quarterback J.J. McCarthy was the leading rusher, with 26 yards on two attempts. Receiver Darnell Mooney gained 20 yards on one attempt. The running back with the most yards rushing was Tyrone Tracy, who had six carries for 18 yards.

Next Sunday, the Giants visit the Texans. We’ll see whether Skattebo gets more, or any, opportunities in Week 7.

More than 40 years after video killed the radio star, Sunday morning football could be killing the traditional pregame shows.

Last week, the Eagles-Jaguars game in London ate into the ratings for the Fox and CBS noon ET pregame shows, as noted recently by Sean Keely of Awful Announcing.

This week, the Texans-Jaguars game in London lasted until 12:48 p.m. ET, leaving only 12 minutes before the end of the Fox and CBS pregame shows.

It’s the third straight Sunday with a 9:30 a.m. ET game. And three more 9:30 a.m. ET games are coming: Week 7 (Steelers-Saints), Week 9 (Bengals-Falcons), and Week 10 (Patriots-Lions).

Spinning it forward, the next Collective Bargaining Agreement will expand the annual slate of international games to 16. That will surely increase the number of games played in Europe, which will increase the number of games that begin at 9:30 a.m. ET. Which will increase the number of times that the Fox and CBS pregame shows are undermined by live game action.

Throw in the fact that there’s non-stop NFL news and analysis, and it could spark a conversation regarding whether it makes sense to overhaul the current model, with the pregame shows shifting to the hour before the 9:30 a.m. ET game begins.

The fans in London got their money’s worth today, with the Texans and Jaguars battling back and forth until Houston kicked the game-winning field goal as time expired for a hard-fought 34-31 win.

Jaguars kicker Cam Little made a 60-yard field goal with 1:55 remaining to tie the score, but the Texans’ offense then marched down the field for Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn to make a 49-yarder with no time left.

The win is a huge one for the Texans, their second straight win after an 0-4 start, and it keeps them in contention to turn their season around and win the AFC South. The Jaguars fall to 4-2, and although they’re still the division favorites, the Texans can at least make things interesting over the final 11 games of the season.

Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud had a big day, completing 24 of 34 passes for 312 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence also had a big day in a losing effort. And Jacksonville’s Travis Hunter had a big day of his own, becoming just the fifth player in the Super Bowl era to have both an interception and a touchdown catch in the same game.

Now both teams head home, with the AFC South race looking different than it did when they made their trek to London.

So much for Jaguars cornerback Travis Hunter having his worst defensive game of the season.

With the Texans leading 31-28 late in the fourth quarter and driving for what could have been a game-clinching touchdown, Hunter stepped in front of a CJ Stroud pass and intercepted it to keep the Jaguars alive.

It was Stroud’s first interception of the season, and Hunter’s second.

Hunter had been burned in coverage on multiple occasions by Texans wide receiver Nico Collins, but he shook that off to make the big play when the Jaguars needed it most.

Hunter has also been making big plays on offense, with four catches for 59 yards and a touchdown.

The Jaguars are down by three points with three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

For most of this season, Jaguars two-way player Travis Hunter has been playing well at cornerback, and hardly playing at all at wide receiver. Today has been different.

Hunter is having by far his biggest game on offense, with four catches for 59 yards and a touchdown, as the Jaguars trail the Texans 31-28 in the fourth quarter. Heading into today, Hunter had just two catches for 17 yards and no touchdowns all season.

But on defense, Hunter has struggled. He got juked by Nico Collins to give up a 42-yard catch that led to one Texans touchdown, and his pass interference on Collins in the end zone set up another Texans touchdown. Stroud has been finding open receivers in the Jacksonville secondary all day.

It’s been a back-and-forth game, but the Texans have managed to hold the lead for most of it. C.J. Stroud has three touchdown passes, while Trevor Lawrence has four.

On the injury front, the Texans lost safety Reed Blankenship to a concussion, but linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was evaluated for a concussion and cleared to return.

With 10 minutes to play, this crucial battle in the AFC South looks like it’s going down to the wire.

Last Sunday in London, the Eagles opted to put a kickoff in play with eight seconds left in the fourth quarter of a game against the Jaguars. This Sunday in London, the Texans opted to put a kickoff into the end zone with eight seconds left in the second quarter of a game against the Jaguars.

Both decisions were incorrect, because of the number of timeouts the Jaguars had in hand.

Last week, the Jaguars had no timeouts. It would have been difficult to complete a pass on the sidelines in field-goal range, since the Eagles could have guarded the boundaries and ignored the middle of the field.

This week, the Jaguars had two timeouts. Giving them the ball at the 35 nearly resulted in gaining enough yards to get in range for another long kick from Cam Little.

The throw from Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence to receiver Parker Washington at the Houston 46 was incomplete; Washington couldn’t control it before it hit the ground. If he’d made the catch, Little would have had a shot at a 63-yard game-tying field goal.

Yes, it would have been a very long kick. But Little has the leg to make it. Three weeks ago, Little missed a 70-yard try just before halftime not because it was short but because it was just wide to the right.

Obviously, there’s a chance that putting the kickoff in play would have resulted in a long return from the Jaguars. But this gets back to Mike Tomlin’s point that teams need to have the right special-teams players who can be trusted to make a tackle.

Regardless, giving the Jaguars the ball at the 35 with eight seconds and two timeouts created a very real risk of something far easier to accomplish than a long kick return. If the 19-yard throw had been completed, the game could be 17-17 entering the third quarter.

Jaguars running back Bhayshul Tuten has reached the end zone three times today, but only two of his touchdowns counted. Texans tight end Foster Moreau also has two touchdowns today, and a Texans field goal on top of it gives Houston a 17-14 lead at halftime.

A Tuten touchdown run was overturned on a bad holding call early in the game, a major error by the official that was particularly costly when the Jaguars came away with no points after a Trevor Lawrence interception on the same possession.

But in the second quarter, Tuten left no doubt when he caught two short Trevor Lawrence passes and scored on both of them. On the first, he winded his way through the Texans’ defense for a 27-yard touchdown. The second was easy, as the Texans left him open on second-and-goal for a two-yard touchdown.

The Texans’ passing game is also making plays. Texans wide receiver Jaylin Noel has two catches, one for 50 yards and one for 34 yards. Texans wide receiver Nico Collins burned Travis Hunter for a 42-yard gain, and later drew a pass interference penalty on Hunter in the end zone to give the Texans first-and-goal at the 1-yard line. Texans wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. made his first catch as a Texan, a 14-yarder over the middle in the second quarter.

But while the wide receivers are getting the big plays, it’s the tight end, Moreau, who is getting into the end zone. He has two touchdown catches, one from six yards out and one from one yard out.

The Texans have a couple of big injury concerns on defense, as linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair is being evaluated for a concussion, and safety Reed Blankenship was carted to the locker room late in the second quarter.

It’s been a tight, back-and-forth game with major implications for the AFC South.

The Jaguars’ secondary is struggling today in London, and Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud is making them pay.

First, Texans wide receiver Nico Collins juked out Jaguars cornerback Travis Hunter and blew by him on a deep route. Stroud hit Collins for a 42-yard catch.

Then, the Jaguars’ defense left Foster Moreau wide open in the end zone for a touchdown to make the score 7-0.

The Jaguars’ next drive started out promising, but it ended with nothing. Jacksonville drove deep into Houston territory and appeared to score on a touchdown run by running back Bhayshul Tuten, but it was called back because of a highly questionable holding call on Brenton Strange. That proved incredibly costly when Trevor Lawrence threw a bad pass into the end zone that was intercepted by Calen Bullock.

The 1-4 Texans desperately need to beat the division-leading 4-1 Jaguars today. They’re off to a good start.