{"id":714964,"date":"2026-01-29T22:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/714964\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T22:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:07:10","slug":"texans-wr-tank-dell-finally-speaks-after-missing-all-of-2025-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/714964\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans WR Tank Dell finally speaks after missing all of 2025 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 29, 2026, 2:25 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

Tank Dell is ready to run it back in 2026.<\/p>\n

The Houston Texans<\/a>‘ star wideout told reporters on Wednesday that he’s \u201cback\u201d after missing the entire 2025 season due to a knee injury. He plans to work out with the team during offeseason drills and plans to take over games come Week 1 of his final year under contract.<\/p>\n

“What I\u2019ve been through is something that taught me to be humble and just keep working,\u201d Dell told reporters in his first public comments about his recovery. \u201cBut I\u2019m back. I feel like I\u2019m feeling good right now\u2026 Once the season comes, we\u2019re gonna cook up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dell, a former 2023 third-round pick and rising star as quarterback C.J. Stroud’s favorite target, suffered a horrific knee injury\u00a0after catching a touchdown in a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs the required him to be hospitalized overnight. Further testing showed that Dell had suffered a torn ACL, MCL, LCL and meniscus damage, along with a dislocated knee, all ailments that required several surgeries and months of rehabilitation, costing him 14 months and 20-plus games.<\/p>\n

Since entering the NFL, Dell has been a confidant and a go-to weapon for Stroud since being drafted out of the University of Houston. As a rookie, Dell totaled 709 receiving yards and tied the rookie record for touchdowns with seven before a broken leg ended his season in early December.<\/p>\n

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Last season, even after missing three games, Dell still managed to total 51 catches for 667 receiving yards and three touchdowns, serving as the Texans’ No. 2 target following Stefon Diggs’ season-ending injury. Dell said that missing the past season was \u201cthe hardest year of my life” since it marked the first time since his youth that he didn’t play football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been playing football since I was 5, and that was the first year I\u2019ve ever had to sit out from football,\u201d Dell said. \u201cThat was hard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fourth-year pro also confirmed that he tried to play at the season’s end, but the timing with the injury just didn’t add up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to be out there with the guys last year,\u201d Dell said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve got time now and I\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texans own the No. 28 pick in the first round of the upcoming NFL draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 29, 2026, 2:25 p.m. CT Tank Dell is ready to run it back in 2026. The Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[95878,7,221,253,2368,6,96520,96521,97116,95882,97087,95953,96682,95896,95888,96683,96685,95895,96681,96686,96680,96687,96684,95906,96177,95883,97162,100712,103614,222,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-714964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-texans","12":"tag-houstontexans","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-sstssportsnfltexans","15":"tag-sstsntexans","16":"tag-tag2026-nfl-draft","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagbreaking-news-social","19":"tag-taghouston-texans","20":"tag-tagmadden-nfl","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnfl-draft","24":"tag-tagnfl-films","25":"tag-tagnfl-hub","26":"tag-tagnfl-junkies","27":"tag-tagnfl-mvp","28":"tag-tagnfl-overreactions","29":"tag-tagnfl-playoffs","30":"tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","31":"tag-tagoverall-positive","32":"tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","33":"tag-tagsports-news","34":"tag-tagstefon-diggs","35":"tag-tagtank-dell","36":"tag-taguniversity-of-houston","37":"tag-texans","38":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}