All Deshaun Watson had to do was finish out his rookie season without getting hurt, and he was basically assured of winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. He couldn’t do it.
On Thursday at practice, Watson tore his ACL, ending his rookie campaign with a resounding thud. Watson is the second quarterback to get bad news on Thursday in the AFC South. Andrew Luck was put on injured reserve for the Colts on Thursday, ending his season before it ever started.
The numbers Watson put up in his first seven games for the Texans were unrivaled amongst rookie quarterbacks in NFL history. The former Clemson Tiger is the second rookie in NFL history to have three games with at least four touchdowns passes. The last was Fran Tarkenton in 1961. Watson will also be on a list with Peyton Manning, Marcus Mariota and Dak Prescott as the only men to have at least four games with three touchdown passes in their rookie campaigns.
At Dober Games, Watson was ranked the No. 1 player overall, averaging 24.55 Dober Fantasy Points per game. The rookie had beaten his Projected Fantasy Points total in all six of his starts before going down with this devastating knee injury.
Worse for the Texans is that they’re forced to turn the ball back over to Tom Savage.
Savage started the opening game of the season for Houston, a 29-7 loss to Jacksonville at home. In that game, Savage went 7-for-13 for 62 yards and was sacked seven times before ultimately getting pulled at halftime for Watson.
Savage has still yet to throw a touchdown pass in his 105 passes in his NFL career, prompting Dober Fantasy players to question whether they should be fading Houston’s quarterback on their Play Cards in Week 9.
The good news is that Savage doesn’t do a lot to beat himself. Even when he was bouncing around at various colleges across FBS, Savage was a quarterback who was never particularly spectacular yet was always going to keep you in games. With a 2-point penalty for every interception, at least we don’t have that to worry about with Savage this week against Indianapolis.
However, the lack of experience throwing the deep ball is a huge concern. The Texans completed seven passes that traveled at least 15 yards in the air last week against Seattle. Watson has completed seven such passes in his entire career.
Down, too, will go the fantasy stocks for DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller.
Hopkins, fresh off of his 224-yard game against the Seahawks, is the No. 1 receiver at Dober Games heading into Week 9 at 18.30 DFP Per game. Fuller is just behind him at 16.00 DFP per game. This duo easily made up the most dangerous in the NFL, and outside of Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, there arguably isn’t a better duo of skill position players in the NFL for fantasy purposes.
The Texans were 13.5-point favorites at Diamond Sportsbook before the injury took place. Watson figures to be worth approximately seven-points to the betting line. Houston will still easily be favored over the Colts, but this is now far from a slam dunk of a game.
