HOUSTON \u2013 For a creative offensive mind with a strong background that included working with New England Patriots star Rob Gronkowski, Nick Caley operated last season with a hand tied behind his back.<\/p>\n
Due to injuries, though, the Texans offensive coordinator and former Patriots tight ends and fullbacks coach and Los Angeles Rams tight ends coach and pass game specialist didn\u2019t get to run his entire strategy to incorporate his ideas.<\/p>\n
Veteran starting tight end Dalton Schultz was sidelined for the Texans\u2019 AFC divisional round playoff loss to New England due to a strained calf. Tight end Cade Stover missed a large chunk of the season after breaking his foot against the Rams in the opening game. And Brevin Jordan tore his patellar tendon during a training camp practice. The Texans had to deploy offensive tackle Blake Fisher as their primary blocking tight end.<\/p>\n
While Schultz caught a career-high 82 passes, Caley had bigger plans at tight end. Now, he\u2019s planning an increased role for the tight ends. That means more double tight end, triple tight end and perhaps even split back formations for running backs David Montgomery and Woody Marks.<\/p>\n
The Texans utilized 12 personnel on 24.26 percent of their offensive snaps last season. They were in 11 personnel — one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers – 58.11 percent of the time. And they were in 21 personnel — heavy formations — 17.63 percent of the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a little bit biased there because of my background with tight ends, but you remember it is important,\u201d Caley said. \u201cI think you always want to be multiple. To nobody\u2019s fault, last year we got thinned out pretty early with Brev prior to us ever getting to the season. Cade goes down in the fourth quarter of the Rams game for call it two-thirds of the season, and we\u2019re in the jumbo world a lot. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be multiple. We want to have balance, 11, 12s, 13s, 20, etcetera, and I think that\u2019s always good to be able to do those things. So, that\u2019s important. We\u2019ve got a really good group of receivers. We\u2019ve got a really good group of backs. We\u2019ve got a really good group at tight end now, too, and we\u2019re healthy. So, it\u2019s been a lot of fun just trying to mix those groupings here and evolve that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since last season, the Texans signed a healthy Schultz to a one-year, $12.6 million extension, signed former New Orleans Saints and Las Vegas Raiders tight end Foster Moreau and drafted University of Michigan tight end and Germany native Marlin Klein in the second round,<\/p>\n
That gives Caley options from a receiving and blocking standpoint.<\/p>\n
\u201cCales is a tight end guy,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cHe\u2019s always trying something. There are always little wrinkles like, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s do this out of this formation. Let\u2019s try this out of this. Let\u2019s motion it.\u2019 I don\u2019t think he goes to bed without thinking about ball, I don\u2019t think he can turn it off. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always coming in, mixing stuff up. He\u2019s really good about letting us know, \u2018Hey, on this, let\u2019s do this different.\u2019 That\u2019s been fun, where you can get away with trying some of that. You\u2019ve got a little bit more time to spend on stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreau has added an experienced presence and an outspoken, trash-talking voice to the offense. He has been mentoring the younger players.<\/p>\n
Stover has fully recovered from offseason hernia surgery.<\/p>\n
Jordan has regained his speed after rehabbing from the patellar tendon tear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not quite there yet,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see when the reins come off everybody, but I\u2019m excited. We have a very well-rounded room and a bunch of guys that do a lot of different stuff really well. I think Foster has been a great addition for us, just bringing the energy, the juice. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a classic Louisiana kid, chirping everything all the time. We need that, especially on offense. We need that sort of thing. I think our room has come together nicely. We\u2019ll continue to work and to get better and show that we can contribute in many different ways in this offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Texans, with new tight ends coach James Ferentz, a former Texans and Patriots center and the son of Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, want to employ more of a roll-up-their sleeves, hard-nosed approach to blocking this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard because, as a tight end, you\u2019re asked to do everything,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cYou constantly have to be working on everything. I know that\u2019s not the best answer or the easiest thing to do. It\u2019s hard when you\u2019re asked to pass block against Will Anderson. It\u2019s hard when you\u2019re asked to run block against Danielle Hunter. It\u2019s hard when you\u2019re asked to go one-on-one against Derek Stingley. You\u2019re asked to do all these things and all the different facets. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think with Ferentz coming in, he has a really good kind of offensive line, physical run blocking background. I\u2019m hoping through some of that work, that\u2019ll kind of allow a little bit more growth in the run game, for me specifically. Just by working through some of those fundamentals and techniques that is just a different view and a focal point than what I think we\u2019re used to technique-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klein strained his hamstring during organized team activities and was sidelined for the Texans\u2019 minicamp. He is expected to make a full recovery for training camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood athlete, he\u2019s a big dude, he moves well,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cI think in this offense, specifically, you are asked to do everything. Knowing where to be and where to line up and how to execute is like a big hurdle. It\u2019s a big learning curve. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think as a young guy, being able to soak that up and to get that information and use it well and able to go out and actually line up and execute at full speed, it\u2019s hard to do. So far, I think he\u2019s done a good job of that. Training Camp kind of is the true test of putting the pads on and figuring out like when the bullets are flying. We\u2019ll see. I\u2019m excited for him.\u201d <\/p>\n
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 For a creative offensive mind with a strong background that included working with New England Patriots…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[23382,23384,1718,7,8529,221,253,2368,76742,52018,6,15986,222],"class_list":["post-919925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-brevin-jordan","tag-cade-stover","tag-dalton-schultz","tag-football","tag-foster-moreau","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-james-ferentz","tag-marlin-klein","tag-nfl","tag-nick-caley","tag-texans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116756482821475692","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919925","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=919925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}