Owen

Daniels

Daniels was targeted five times, including a floater that went over his head on a would-be touchdown. He bounced back with a 4-yard touchdown to give the Texans a 13-3 lead early in the second quarter. Daniels’ role diminished in the second half with the Texans putting the ball in Ben Tate’s hands. Daniels remains a TE1 option for next week’s game at New Orleans.

Doing much of his damage against Roman Harper, Daniels finally emerged from his early-season slump as the Texans keyed on attacking New Orleans’ safeties. Daniels and James Casey were the benefactors, combining for a whopping 213 yards and two scores. Daniels gets another favorable matchup when the Saints visit Jacksonville next Sunday.

Daniels was Matt Schaub’s No. 1 target in the passing game, tying Jacoby Jones for a team-high 11 targets and racking up catches over the middle. Expect the trend to continue in Week 6 against Baltimore, with Joel Dreessen moving back on the line to block. Daniels has been consistent this season, scoring at least eight standard league fantasy points in every game since Week 1.

Kubiak blamed extra attention and double teams for Daniels’ meager 13 yards against the Ravens. With Andre Johnson (hamstring) sidelined, defenses are aware that the tight end is often the No. 1 option in the passing game for Matt Schaub. Still, Daniels should be needed as a blocker far less in this week’s game against the Titans. He’s still a TE1.

Daniels and Arian Foster accounted for 190 (64 percent) of Matt Schaub’s 296 passing yards. Daniels lost a 10-yard score to Joel Dreessen and was stopped just shy of the goal-line on a 9-yard reception. He has an attractive Week 8 matchup against a Jags defense that has struggled against quality tight ends.

The Bengals have been death to tight ends this season, but Daniels gutted the defense in the middle of the field off play action. While his 10 targets tied for the team lead, Daniels lost another red-zone score to tight-end vulture Joel Dreessen. If Andre Johnson sits out again next week, Daniels figures to be T.J. Yates’ go-to receiver against the Panthers.

It was Daniels’ backup, Joel Dreessen, who was the preferred option on the Texans’ patented bootleg play this week. Playing through a hyper-extended knee, Daniels saw just two targets to Dreessen’s team-leading four. With six of the last seven games under 50 yards, Daniels can’t be trusted in Week 17 versus the Titans.

Daniels tells NFL Network’s Alex Flanagan that his hyper-extended knee is good enough to play without any reservations in Week 16. Though he’s been the top option for T.J. Yates since Andre Johnson went down, Daniels has topped 50 yards just once in the past six games.

Kubiak conceded that Daniels “does have a hand issue ... but it’s not going to keep him from playing. He’s fine.” Daniels’ receiving ability could still be mitigated if it’s a broken hand, as indications after last Saturday’s win pointed to. He may have to focus on blocking this weekend against the Ravens.

The exact results of Daniels’ X-rays are not yet known. But per John Clayton, Daniels doesn’t have a compound fracture in his hand. Still, it’s hard to see a pure pass-catching tight end play effectively with any kind of fractured hand. We should know more on Daniels’ status by Monday afternoon.