Owen Daniels

Daniels was limited to five games last season with the Texans because of a fractured fibula. He signed with Baltimore this offseason, joining former Houston head coach Gary Kubiak, who is the Ravens' new offensive coordinator. Dennis Pitta, who was also limited by a severe injury last season, is the No. 1 tight end, but Kubiak's tight end-focused system ensures that Daniels will see his share of targets. The Ravens also signed wideout Steve Smith, but he's 35-years-old and on the downside of his career and could end up being the fourth receiving option behind No. 1 receiver Torrey Smith and the tight-end duo. Daniels and Pitta likely will be used together often in two-TE formations, and both can play the slot, as well. Third-round draft pick Crockett Gillmore is expected to be used as the blocking tight end.

With Joel Dreessen out of the picture, Daniels hogged the tight-end targets last season, posting a career-high 104, second on the team to Andre Johnson. All those targets led to Daniels' most receptions (62) and yards (716) since 2008 and a career-high six touchdowns. Daniels benefitted last year from the lack of a second receiving option behind Johnson. The next best wideout was the ineffective Kevin Walter, who had a mere 68 targets and left for Tennessee this offseason. That leaves the No. 2 role to first-round pick DeAndre Hopkins. How much Hopkins can contribute as a rookie remains to be seen, but Daniels is a safe bet to see steady targets once again. His touchdowns, though, aren't likely to see a big gain. Houston's strong running game – 50 attempts inside the 10-yard line (2nd) – limits the receiving opportunities from in close.

After consecutive injury-plagued seasons, Daniels remained healthy enough to play 15 games last year, missing Week 17 only to rest for the playoffs. The veteran, who had 85 targets last season, could find himself with a significant increase in targets this year after Joel Dreessen and his 39 targets (and six touchdowns) signed with Denver. Backup James Casey is little threat to steal targets from Daniels, the clear No. 1 tight end for the Texans. Daniels’ 677 receiving yards were a three-year high, and he’ll have a healthy Matt Schaub under center this season. The Texans will continue to be a run-first team – while they ranked second with 178 red-zone plays, only 74 of those were passes, ranking 12th – and ask Daniels to block the edge on a lot of plays. But this also helps open up the defense down field for Daniels to run intermediate and deeper routes on play-action. While Daniels isn’t the fastest tight end, he runs precise routes and gets downfield well, catching eight passes of 20-plus with 7.9 yards per target and 12.5 yards per catch last season. Health seems to be the biggest factor for Daniels. Not only his, but Schaub’s too. Daniels saw 12 red-zone targets in the first nine games last year, but didn’t have one the rest of the season after Schaub went down in Week 10.

After starting at a blistering pace in 2009, a torn ACL ended a breakout season for Daniels after only eight games. The Texans eased him back into play last season, limiting his snaps to start the year. Owens’ luck didn’t get any better as a midseason hamstring injury sidelined him for five games. Once he returned to the field, though, he looked like the Daniels of old. He hauled in 22 catches for 271 yards and two touchdowns over the Texans' final four regular-season games. Owens gets downfield well, using his quickness coming out of breaks to make him an open target – eight of his 38 receptions went for 20-plus yards. Expect him to be a big part of the offense again this year after he inked a four-year, $22 million deal in March.

Daniels was on pace for a career year before he tore his ACL against the Bills in Week 8. If you prorate his numbers from the first seven weeks over the entire season, he would have finished with 89 catches for 1,136 yards and 11 touchdowns. He also saw much more work in the red zone than in the previous season —10 red zone targets in eight games, the same number he saw in 16 games in 2008.

Daniels’ rehab from the knee surgery has reportedly gone very smoothly, and he is on pace to be ready to start the regular season. Monitor his progress in training camp, though. Daniels’ game is based in part on his ability to get down field. He ranked third among tight ends in both yards per target last year at 8.9 and yards per catch at 13.0. He had 430 yards after the catch in 2008 and already had 231 last year before falling to injury. He wouldn’t be the first athlete to lose his speed and agility after an ACL tear.

Daniels set career highs in receptions (70) and yardage (862), improving for the second straight season. The 862 receiving yards were good for third among tight ends, a number that can be attributed to his 430 yards after the catch (2nd). These numbers were especially impressive because starter Matt Schaub missed five games with a knee injury. If Schaub were to stay healthy for the entire season, it should raise Daniels’ fantasy value further. On the flip side, Daniels saw a relatively low number of red-zone targets for the second straight year (11 and 10, respectively), accounting for only two touchdowns. Another mark against Daniels is the Texans drafting Anthony Hill and James Casey, while re-signing Joel Dreesen. All three will take away a modest number of targets from Daniels, who is still an excellent option after the top few options are off the board.

While Daniels benefited from Andre Johnson's seven-game absence due to a knee injury, Daniels' also showed significant improvement from his rookie season, bumping up his yards per catch from 10.4 to 12.2 (4th) and his yards per target from 6.9 to 8.2 (6th). Once Johnson returned from injury, Daniels saw fewer targets, but he remained a credible option in the passing game. Both Matt Schaub and Sage Rosenfels were comfortable working with Daniels who could develop further in his third season.

It sounds impressive when you learn that Houston was sixth in the NFL in tight-end touchdowns, and that Daniels tied for the team lead with five TDs. But Daniels didn’t find the end zone in the final nine weeks and was targeted in the red zone just seven times in 14 games. The Texans are not deep at wideout, so Daniels should be among the top targets for new quarterback Matt Schaub, but coach Gary Kubiak is intent on working his running game, and he likely won’t ask Schaub to win games through the air.

Daniels, selected in the fourth round of the 2006 draft, made the roster after head coach Gary Kubiak decided to keep four tight ends. With Bennie Joppru acting as the backup full back, Daniels becomes Houston's third-string tight end behind Mark Bruener and Jeb Putzier. He's got good hands and Texans head coach Gary Kubiak likes to use tight ends in the passing offense, so he may get some red zone opportunities.