Keke Coutee Fantasy Outlook Improves With Return to Practice Following Ankle Injury

Keke Coutee has finally returned to practice after missing nearly a month with the ankle injury he suffered in the Houston Texans' August 8th preseason opener against the Green Bay Packers.

The team described the injury as "not major", but a nebulous term like that didn't inspire a ton of confidence that he'd be back on the field quickly. Accordingly, his fantasy football average draft position (ADP) took a hit, falling to WR56.

Back at practice over a week before the regular season kicks off, that ADP could now provide some serious value.

We didn't get to see much out of Coutee as a rookie, with injuries limiting him to only six games. Early returns were incredibly promising though.

The Texans had no qualms feeding him the ball early and often — his 15 targets in his debut were the third-most ever recorded by a player in their first NFL game. He went on to tally 41 targets across his six games, even though two of those saw him leave early due to injury. He notched no fewer than five targets in any of his four full games, averaging 9.0 per game.

The Texans' receiving corps is crowded, with Will Fuller and DeAndre Hopkins on the outside, but Coutee operates in a completely different role than those two. Hopkins and Fuller both had an average target depth north of 12 yards in 2018, while Coutee's sat at only 5.1 yards. That could create some overlap with the addition of Duke Johnson, but thanks to Lamar Miller's season-ending injury, we may not see Johnson working out of the slot on receiver routes as often.

We shouldn't expect Coutee to average nine targets per game over a full season, but the Texans' willingness to feed him the ball that much as a rookie is a great sign for his 2019 usage. His catch rate should remain high thanks to the routes he runs, and that should also translate to a high reception total.

He does offer a relatively low ceiling without much big-play upside in a crowded offense, but at his current ADP, that is fine, especially in PPR leagues. High reception totals should be enough to keep him in the conversation as at least a consistent WR4 and often a WR3 throughout the season.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.