Tank Dell is always finding a way to get open, the route running is incredible, and the fluidity in and out of breaks is up there with the best wideouts in the NFL. The only area of criticism that I can find so far is the 3 drops he's had, but it's not something I expect to continue or ever become a major issue with his game. 

Outside of the drops, his biggest "issue" is just simply size. However, he never missed a game in college, and he really is a Tyler Lockett-type of receiver, who understands when to pick his spots with contact, and when and how to avoid unnecessary hits. 

Houston Texans WR Tank Dell Film Breakdown

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Disclaimer: The following is a transcript of a YouTube video titled “WR Tank Dell was a HOME RUN Pick by the Texans” The content is for informational purposes only and was originally presented in video format.

He's only played seven games so far, but I am fully confident that Tank Dell was a hit for the Houston Texans in the third round. He had a monster game in week 9 against Tampa Bay, including the game winning touchdown, but he's been playing at a high level all season. He ranks 8th in EPA per target, 18th in yards per route run, and even as a rookie he's already one of the better route runners in the NFL.

ESPN has these receiver ratings that are based off of the NextGen stats tracking, and they split it into open score, catch score, and YAK score, and he has the 3rd highest open score of any NFL receiver. Even when he isn't getting targeted, he's consistently open. There have been a handful of missed opportunities between him and C.J. Stroud. So I would expect his usage and involvement in the offense to continue to rise.

This is the game winning touchdown from week 9. They're on the 15 yard line, the Bucs are playing quarters coverage. So these four deep defenders are trying to match the vertical routes. This post from Noah Brown is going to influence the safety to the inside. And then you've got Tank Dell running a post against outside leverage from Carlton Davis. He's gonna spray release to start out, which means he's still getting downfield, but he's widening out to even out that leverage. He's using the stem of this route to attack Carlton Davis' leverage, and threaten him in the opposite direction of where he's gonna break. 

And then at the top of the route, he gives this rocker step again in the opposite direction of his break. That just makes it easier for him to create separation to the inside. Stroud delivers a strike with great anticipation, gets rid of the ball before he's out of his break, and the Texans get the game winning touchdown. On this play from Week 2, he's facing a similar coverage technique, but this time he's running an out breaking route. 

Again, the corner is playing with outside leverage, so he widens out with his release to even out that leverage. He's breaking to the sideline, so he's trying to sell to the corner that he's running his route in the opposite direction. So he turns his body upfield, acts like he's running a seam. At the top of the route, he plants his outside foot and then really fluid break to the sideline to create a lot of separation. And then he makes the catch, completely stops his momentum, spins out of the tackle attempt, and runs into the end zone.

On this play from Week 1, Tank Dell and Noah Brown are going to do a switch release. The DB that's covering Tank Dell has to make up that leverage to the inside. He also has to fight through the traffic that Noah Brown creates. So by the time they get to the break, his shoulders are completely pointed towards the opposite sideline. He tries to reach out his left hand to stop his momentum. Tank Dell does a great job swimming through the contact, but C.J. Stroud is getting pressured from the right so he ends up overthrowing this.

So the route running ability, the fluidity out of his brakes was something that was obvious to anyone that watched his college tape. If you've got a flat footed corner trying to keep up with him on the horizontal plane, he's such a smooth route runner, he does a great job selling his routes and he just creates easy separation. But if we look at his route distribution for this year, his most targeted route and his most common route run has been curls and comebacks. 

And he's really effective with these routes because he can just stop his momentum on a dime. This play from Week 1, he's facing pretty tight man coverage, but he just sinks his hips and cuts his route off about as fast as possible. Good job using the push by technique here with the inside hand where he's not trying to do an obvious push off that's going to draw a flag. He's got the corner with his momentum downfield, so he just gives a quick subtle push off that carries him in that direction and it also forces the corner to release contact. He's trying to grab at the jersey to stick with the route. 

So even though he's undersized for a receiver, he's mastered the hand usage throughout the process of the route to create space for himself. And the fact that he's been so productive running these vertical stop routes, that opens up the opportunity for the stop and go. You see on this play from Week 9, he's got Carlton Davis playing off coverage. If he just ran a straight up vertical route, he'd probably be able to keep up with this. Although Carlton Davis had a terrible game, so who knows. 

But about 12 yards into the route, he sinks his hips, gives a couple throttle steps. That's just enough to get Carlton Davis to bite forward and give him space over the top. At the point Stroud throws this ball, Tank Dell is still about 3 or 4 yards underneath Carlton Davis, but he trusts that he has that top end speed to win vertically. Perfect throw, drops it right in the bucket for a touchdown. I'm not exactly sure what the Jacksonville Jaguars defensive strategy was on this play. It looks like they're playing cover three, but they've got this hook defender dropping from about five yards of depth into the deep middle. 

So Darious Williams is playing with outside leverage. All Tank Dell has to do is just spray release outside, cut inside over the top. Rayshawn Jenkins doesn't have the speed to keep up with him and Tank Dell makes a really impressive contested catch. His stat line is really good for a rookie, but there have been so many missed opportunities… Watching the Bucs game, he had most of his production later in the game. He could have easily had like 150 yards in the first quarter. This is an easy touchdown over Zyon McCollum. CJ Stroud just puts too much on this.

And then this is another one. He's running a deep over against cover three. Zion McCollum has this deep third on the left side of the field. He doesn't get enough depth, but C.J. Stroud's getting pressure. He can't really step into this throw and he ends up overthrowing it. So as great as C.J. Stroud has been, the ball placement has actually been pretty inconsistent. That was his biggest strength coming out of college. So, if that kind of evens out to where we thought it would be, he and Tank Dell, I think he will be even more productive.

And then Tank Dell isn't a great run blocker, but he pretty much opened up this touchdown for Noah Brown in Week 9. They're running an over route with Noah Brown, and then a deep out from Tank Dell. As always, he gets open against off coverage, but Noah Brown's also open, so C.J. Stroud hits him, but then he takes out Zion McCollum, the incidental contact kind of trips up number 23, Noah Brown's able to turn the corner and get to the end zone.

Really the only area you can criticize Tank Dell so far is that he's had three drops. Two of them came in week nine. From his college tape, I didn't remember drops being a major issue, although looking at his box score now, he had one game towards the end of the season with five drops. He's a really talented catcher of the football just in terms of attacking the ball in the air. He has really good sideline awareness to get both feet inbounds. But there have been a few missed opportunities by not catching the football.

There were a lot of size outliers in last year's draft class, but Tank Dell was one of the guys that I really believed in. He's too quick to press him at the line of scrimmage. He does a great job fighting through contact as a route runner. The catch radius over the middle of the field is kind of restricted. And he's not someone that's gonna just power through tackle attempts, although he can't juke people in the open field. so those are two potential limits to his game, but it's not something that's gonna prevent him from being an effective receiver overall. 

And then the other reason you'd be concerned about a small receiver is injuries, but knock on wood, he didn't miss a single game in college, and he missed one week in the NFL, but that was with a concussion, which doesn't really have much to do with size. So, based on all that, yes, he's undersized, but he's been able to overcome a lot of the reasons that you'd be concerned about that.

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