Dalton Schultz — Week 2: Twelve Catches for a Hundred Forty
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Schultz caught 12 of 14 targets for 140 yards and six first downs, all game highs, including a 35-yard catch and run on third and three from the Houston 15 in the first quarter. Four catches for 68 yards came before halftime and eight for 72 in the fourth quarter with Houston down 20–6. Nico Collins was inactive, in a 20–6 loss to the Bengals.
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Nothing to nothing, three 57 left in the first quarter, third and three at the Houston 15. C.J. Stroud threw short right to Dalton Schultz, five yards in the air, and Schultz took it 35 yards to midfield. +3.2 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 7.1 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. It was Houston's biggest play of the day by both measures and its longest completion. The drive reached the Cincinnati 16 and ended on a failed fake field goal.
The line: 14 targets, 12 catches, a hundred 40 yards, no touchdown, six first downs, +7.5 expected points on his targets. Targets, catches, yards and expected points were all the most by any player on either team. A hundred four air yards, 63 after the catch. The game splits in two. Before halftime: four targets, four catches, 68 yards — seven, the 35, 11 on second and six, and 15 on first and 10. After it: 10 targets, eight catches, 72 yards, and all eight catches came in the fourth quarter with Houston down 20 to six. Those went nine, nine, two, four, seven, 11, five and 25, the last one deep middle on third and five with a minute 25 left, to the Cincinnati 40. Four third-down targets, three caught, all three converted. The miss was third and 11 at the Cincinnati 27 with 44 seconds left in the third, deep right, and Houston kicked a field goal. On Houston's final two possessions, eight of the 14 throws that were not spikes went to him.
14 targets against nine for Xavier Hutchinson, seven for Jared Wayne and six for Woody Marks. The other tight end thrown to, Foster Moreau, caught both of his for 34 yards. Nico Collins, who led Houston with 10 targets in Week 1, was on the inactive list, per the team's site.
Back in June the preview had Schultz as an eleventh-place tight end built on volume — six targets a game, a steady short-area role — and asked how much of that volume would survive a crowded receiver room. Week 1 was eight targets and four catches for 35 yards, with −2.5 expected points on them. Sunday was the opposite on efficiency and bigger on volume, and two things inflate it: the top receiver was out, and more than half the catches came down two scores in the fourth quarter. 22 targets in two games is the part that fits the preview, and it fits it well. Houston is at the Colts on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
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