The University of Houston’s TDECU Stadium and NRG Stadium are almost 10 miles away from each other. It may be the shortest scouting trip for the Houston Texans.
The offensive explosion orchestrated by quarterback Clayton Tune and wideout Tank Dell wasn’t going unnoticed as far as the Texans were unconcerned. The Cougars generated 455.8 yards total offense with Dell catching 113 for 1,407 yards and 17 touchdowns.
However, it wasn’t until the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., in the beginning of February that Texans assistant director of player personnel James Liipfert start to recognize Dell’s best trait.
“One thing that Tank did which really showed itself I would say at the Senior Bowl was just how well he separated as a route runner,” Liipfert told reporters Nov. 9. “Tank is very, very quick and very sudden. Everyone likes to watch the one-on-ones and that kind of thing, but just the amount of separation he was getting out of his cuts and creating windows.”
The Texans selected Dell in the third round with the confidence what he had shown with the Cougars would translate to the NFL.
Said Liipfert: “I would just say his speed out of cuts, his ability to separate with his quickness in addition to a lot of other things, but I would those couple of things are at the top of the list as far as positive traits that he had that we really liked and kind of made him attractive to us to draft.”
Dell has given rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud a weapon through the first eight games. The 5-10, 165-pound receiver has caught 28 passes for 454 yards and four touchdowns on the season.
