{"id":853548,"date":"2026-04-04T16:44:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/853548\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T16:44:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:44:31","slug":"whats-the-status-of-tank-dell-texans-hc-demeco-ryans-provides-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/853548\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the status of Tank Dell? Texans HC DeMeco Ryans provides update"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 3, 2026, 7:24 a.m. CT<\/p>\n

Tank Dell is expected to be good to go in 2026.<\/p>\n

When? That still remains the question.<\/p>\n

The fourth-year pass-catcher for the Houston Texans<\/a> has been working over the past 14 months since suffering a knee injury in the regular-season loss to Kansas City. While he’s trending toward running drills, Houston remains cautious about setting a timeline for when he expects to return to the field ahead of Week 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cTank is grinding,\u201d Texans coach DeMeco Ryans told reporters at the annual league meetings<\/a> in Phoenix. \u201cHe\u2019s showing up every day. Great attitude. He\u2019s really working hard. Don\u2019t know if at\u00a0OTAs he\u2019ll be there, but he\u2019ll be back at some point this year.”<\/p>\n

Coming into his own in 2024, Dell was carted off the field in December of 2024 after hauling in a touchdown pass from C.J. Stroud, tearing multiple ligaments in his left knee while also dislocating his kneecap.\u00a0Because of the severity of the injury, he missed the entire 2025 season while undergoing multiple surgeries and rehabilitation workouts.<\/p>\n

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Midway through last season, Dell began to ramp up his workouts. He even tried to make a push for a postseason return after the Texans clinched 12 wins, but the team chose to give him more time to get acclimated to his body and prep for the start of a new season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Tank, it\u2019s not a matter of getting back to OTAs\u00a0just to get back,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of getting back, being in a really good spot physically so you can stay there. It\u2019s not about how quickly he returns, it\u2019s just about Tank returning.”<\/p>\n

Houston would love nothing more than for Dell to be good to go for September, especially as a secondary weapon for Stroud. A third-round pick from 2023, the University of Houston product had 98 catches for 1,376 yards and 10 touchdowns in 25 games.<\/p>\n

Getting Dell healthy isn’t only needed for the offense, but also for the future. Entering the final year of his rookie contract, Dell, 26, still remains a mystery on if he’ll ever return to peak form. Ryans, for now, just wants to see him play once more.<\/p>\n

“We saw what Tank can do, the playmaking he provides to our entire team,” Ryans said. “Just getting him back, whenever that is, it\u2019s going to lift our team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 3, 2026, 7:24 a.m. CT Tank Dell is expected to be good to go in 2026. When?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[95878,7,221,253,2368,6,96520,96521,95882,96676,96679,95953,96682,95896,95888,96683,96685,95895,96681,96686,96680,96687,96684,95906,96177,95883,100712,222,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-853548","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-tagamerican-football","17":"tag-tagc-j-stroud","18":"tag-tagdemeco-ryans","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-tagtank-dell","35":"tag-texans","36":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853548","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=853548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}