Houston Texans wideout Tank Dell went down during the third quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday, and was later ruled out with a serious knee injury. It was a somber moment inside Arrowhead Stadium, and one that affected Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud particularly profoundly.
After the game, Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans issued a small update on Dell, who had been transferred to University of Kansas hospital. “Tank had a significant knee injury, and he’ll be staying here in Kansas City overnight getting further evaluations,” the coach said. “We’ll get an update tomorrow on him, but all our thoughts and prayers are with Tank right now. You guys can see what he means to our entire team. It hurts to see him go down like that. He was having a fantastic game, playing really well for us. He was in a really great spot. And we just want to keep him in our thoughts and prayers right now.”
Dell had caught and managed to hold onto a 30-yard touchdown pass when the injury occurred. He collided with another Texans wide receiver and a Kansas City cornerback on his way down, but it’s currently unclear how that played into the injury, if at all. Even with the 19–27 loss, Ryans said the first thing he discussed with the team was Dell.
“We’re a family, we’re in this thing together and Tank means so much to our entire football team. Outside of playing. Just the person and the man. He means a lot to us. … That’s bigger than football right now. We see our brother down, hurt, in that manner. That’s what’s most important to us.”
The Texans are also missing wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who tore his ACL in October, so Dell’s absence would have been an issue even if it didn’t go down in such a gruesome fashion. Ryans says the team will collect itself eventually, because it has to. “We can’t hang our head and sulk about it,” he continued. “We play on Wednesday.” Indeed, the 9–6 Texans will next face the 9–5 Baltimore Ravens on Christmas.
