Keke Coutee caught 6-of-7 passes for 51 yards and a touchdown in Week 5 against Dallas on Sunday Night Football. Coutee scored Houston’s only touchdown on a goal-line shovel pass. He briefly left in the second quarter to get check for a concussion after taking a huge hit, but was cleared to return. Coutee proved his blowup debut wasn’t a fluke, but it’s going to be hard for him to have week-to-week consistency. He’ll be a WR3/FLEX for Week 6 against Buffalo.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a third receiving star in Houston was born. Rookie Keke Coutee (pronounced cutie, lol) followed up his massive debut with another strong performance as the Texans WR3. Coutee and Will Fuller were both questionable for the contest, but both ended up playing high snap counts. Coutee was out there for 57 of the Texans 80 offensive plays and ended up with more targets than Fuller. Houston had primarily worked with two receivers so far thus season, with little-to-no production from a third receiver, tight end, or even a running back in the passing game. Coutee’s emergence and presence looks to be sustainable, and a big part of what Houston will utilize going forward. As Fuller focuses on the deep routes over the top of the defense and Hopkins working all over the field, Coutee figures to handle to short routes for Deshaun Watson when the big plays aren’t there. The staggering chemistry seems to already be there with Watson, and Coutee is likely to bring Fuller’s stock down a bit taking away from his target total.
