The New Orleans Saints and Houston Texans will help round out the first week of NFL games in the first Monday Night Football game of the year. Both teams feature rosters flush with talented players, but some of them can impact the outcome more than others. Here’s six Texans players the Saints must slow down to avoid their sixth straight opening-day loss.
WR Will Fuller
A series of injuries have limited the time Fuller has had with starting quarterback Deshaun Watson to just 11 games, but they’ve been prolific whenever they’ve shared the field. In those 11 games, Fuller has caught 11 touchdown passes from Watson while averaging 15.7 yards per catch and torching opposing cornerbacks. Fuller’s speed in the open field and Watson’s consistent ball placement have made the combination nearly unbeatable.
With newcomers Keke Coutee and Kenny Stills (who started his career with the Saints, incidentally) waiting in the wings, the Texans will bring a receiving corps to New Orleans as deep as any other in the league. It’s as strong a test for the fiery Saints secondary, led by cornerback Marshon Lattimore and safety Vonn Bell, as they could hope for.
LB Whitney Mercilus
The Jadeveon Clowney trade boosted Mercilus back into the starting lineup; he previously featured heavily in the edge-rush rotation, logging 4 sacks and 14 other quarterback hits last season after having lost the previous year to injury. He’ll have the first chance to get after Saints quarterback Drew Brees across the formation from a generational talent in J.J. Watt.
Including the playoffs, Mercilus has racked up 48.5 sacks and 98 hits in 99 career games with the Texans. He’s not just a second-stringer getting a promotion. The 29-year old is a legitimate force out on the edge and could give the Saints real problems if they underestimate his abilities.
RB Duke Johnson
In another timeline, Johnson would round out the Saints’ running back rotation as an ideal backup for Alvin Kamara. Johnson’s accomplishments the last few seasons with the Cleveland Browns as a passing-downs specialist (catching 235 passes in four years in the NFL, gaining 2,135 yards) have given the Texans a great blueprint to build off of after acquiring him in a trade.
On top of that, Johnson has been an effective runner out of the shotgun, which the Texans go to frequently. He averaged 5.3 rushing yards per attempt out of the shotgun in Cleveland, and Houston ranks among league leaders in calling runs from the shotgun (seventh-most last season). They know how to deploy him on all three downs, and will do so from a position of strength against the Saints.
DE J.J. Watt
What more can be said of Watt? He’s made the analysts at Pro Football Focus rethink their grading scales after posting Hall of Fame-quality numbers throughout his career. After struggling with a series of serious injuries (appearing in just 8 games between 2016 and 2017), he returned to football with a vengeance in 2018, leading the NFL in forced fumbles (7) while notching 16 sacks and 25 hits. His 18 tackles for loss in run defense paced the Texans as a team.
The Saints know firsthand how important it is to slow down Watt. He killed their game plan the last time they saw each other, back in 2015, singlehandedly shutting down the offense before it even got off the ground. Watt ended the day with two sacks and seven hits (and who even knows how many other pressures) while the Saints left Houston with a 24-6 loss.
WR DeAndre Hopkins
Hopkins sometimes gets lost in the conversation whenever debates range about the best wide receivers in football, but he has a resume as strong as anyone’s. It’s often seemed like it doesn’t matter who throws him the ball (unless it’s Brock Osweiler), because Hopkins has the rare combination of a huge catch radius and sure hands that allows him to adjust to even the worst-placed passes (unless, again, they come from Osweiler. Hopkins had his worst year as a pro with Osweiler under center, catching just 51.7% of his targets).
The 27-year old can do it all. There isn’t a route he can’t run or, seemingly, a ball he can’t jump high enough to compete for. He’ll challenge Lattimore, Eli Apple, and the rest of the Saints secondary like few receivers are capable of. In a way, frequent games against Atlanta Falcons star Julio Jones and Tampa Bay Buccaneers playmaker Mike Evans have been preparing them for this sort of matchup against Hopkins.
QB Deshaun Watson
Watson’s football career is already storied. His rookie year ACL injury derailed things a bit, but he’s gone 14-8 as a starter, and made his first Pro Bowl in 2018 after leading the Texans to the playoffs. And that all came after a sensational college career for the Clemson Tigers that saw him split two national title games against Alabama, hanging a combined 825 passing yards and throwing 7 total touchdowns on the always-favored Crimson Tide.
Texans head coach Bill O’Brien finally caved and admitted Watson needs more support to continue thriving in the NFL, making investments along the offensive line that included multiple high draft picks, a trade for ex-Miami Dolphins up-and-coming left tackle Laremy Tunsil, and the signing of reliable former Saints backup Senio Kelemete. Watson will have the best protection and the most weapons he’s ever seen in the NFL at his disposal, and it falls to a Saints defense with a strong recent track record to get after him.
