Houston Texans Start-Sit: Week 14 Fantasy Advice for C.J. Stroud, Nick Chubb, Woody Marks, Christian Kirk, and Others
The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Houston Texans players heading into their matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs to help you craft a winning lineup.
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C.J. Stroud, QB
Does this season feel weird to anyone else?
It does to me, so I looked into it.
Last year, through 13 weeks, 20 times did a starting quarterback throw 10+ passes, win the game, and score less than 10 fantasy points.
That’s a bit of a mouthful, but it’s basically a look at how often a team has needed basically nothing from their QB to get the desired result on the scoreboard.
We’ve had 28 this season, a list that C.J. Stroud joined for the first time last week against the Colts, a game that saw him throw 35 passes but finish with zero touchdowns.
For the season, he has just 11 TD passes on 277 attempts, and facing the seventh-best red zone defense in the league isn’t exactly a get-right spot for him.
This defense seems to keep every game tight, no matter how the offense is performing, and that means the coaching staff is happy with Stroud as long as he doesn’t make a major mistake.
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His aDOT is similar to last season (8.2 from 8.3), but the percentage of passes thrown 15+ yards downfield has fallen from 22.9% to 18.8%. He’s picking and choosing his spots based on the circumstance, and that’s a great plan for the Texans.
It leaves us wanting more, with little path to getting it.
Stroud was fantasy’s top-scoring QB back in Week 5, but that’s his only top-10 finish of the season, and I don’t think we see that change here. Despite a lack of a running game and a game-breaking receiver, Stroud is on the outside looking in at streaming options in a week that has four teams on a bye.
Nick Chubb, RB
Woody Marks was dinged up early and returned, but that opened the door last week for Nick Chubb to hold a little more value than we anticipated, an opportunity he cashed in on with a four-yard score in the second quarter.
I don’t think it matters.
The Texans have made it clear they want the rookie to lead their backfield in a significant way, which leaves Chubb without a role that matters for us. This is a low-volume player who isn’t used in the passing game and is only really good at getting what is blocked at this point in his career … and this offensive line isn’t great at moving bodies.
Chubb has been great to fantasy managers in the past, but in 2025, he doesn’t need to be rostered.
Woody Marks, RB
Any player evaluation is three-pronged: role, talent, and situation.
Running backs that check at least two of those boxes have a way of finding their way into our lineup.
I’m not sold on the situation in terms of run blocking or respect given to the passing game being optimal. That leaves role and talent.
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The role is there and unquestioned at this point. Entering Week 14, only four running backs have 16+ carries and a reception in each of their past three games: Jonathan Taylor, James Cook, Javonte Williams, and Marks.
That’s a list that Christian McCaffrey, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Bijan Robinson aren’t on, but Marks is. I say that not to sell you on Marks, but to sell you on the role of Marks. It’s locked in and something we can count on (the Nick Chubb touchdown last week came as Marks was working his way back from an early trip to the locker room due to a foot injury).
So now the million-dollar question: is Marks “good”?
The very small sample that we have puts him on the wrong side of average. But we are talking about a fourth-round pick who has 152 touches in his career, making any drastic claims hard to make.
That leaves us at 1-1-1 in my three boxes. He has the role, not the situation, and the talent discussion is in the eye of the beholder. For me, that makes him a low-end RB2 with the ability to move up 5-7 spots in the rankings when the matchup dictates.
We could see that in the coming weeks (home games against the Cardinals and Raiders await), but I’m not sold we do on Sunday. The Chiefs are the ninth-best defense after contact, ranking fifth in average time of possession, giving them the ability to hold onto the ball. Marks can do a lot of things, but scoring fantasy points when Houston is playing defense isn’t one of them.
He’s my RB23 this week, and I expect to be considerably higher in the coming weeks as the matchups lighten.
Christian Kirk, WR
Christian Kirk wasn’t targeted on 17 routes against the Colts, and this lost season is officially dead after he showed minor signs of life the week prior with five catches in the win over the Bills.
This team likes what they are getting from Jayden Higgins as a complement next to Nico Collins, and Dalton Schultz has been a reliable chain mover for the majority of the season.
The idea of drafting Kirk, a veteran next to a star WR1 with a complementary skill set, was logical, but at no point this season has he lived up to expectations, and there’s no reason to hold onto him at the end of your roster as you build out your depth for the postseason.
Jayden Higgins, WR
Jayden Higgins is moving in a positive direction for a team that is moving in a positive direction, a nice alignment of priorities, but not something that I expect to land him on our weekly radar.
The profile the rookie has put forth is impressive and will certainly be one I’ll consider for next season. He’s a viable depth piece for the final month of 2025 (4-5 receptions in four straight games), but in this matchup against the fourth-best defense in terms of limiting deep completions (2.3 per game), there is more downside in getting cute with a play like this than there is room for real reward.
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My Higgins weekly ranking (usually in the 30-40 range) has as much to do with C.J. Stroud as it does the receiver himself: Are you comfortable in asking him to support three pass catchers?
I’m not.
Nico Collins, WR
Nico Collins had reached his expected point total in just three of his first eight games this season, but he’s now done it in three straight, and it all feels sustainable.
Last week against the Colts was the fourth time this season that he saw over 30% of the targets go his way, and it was the fifth time in six games that he cleared 100 air yards.
Leveraging his athletic profile is one thing, but how about a gadget reverse from seen yards out to get him the first rushing score of his career?
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I’d argue it took too long, but better late than never. The Texans are embracing a very sharp plan of getting the ball to their best player regularly, and they’ve won four straight. Collins’ best production this season could be in front of him, and while this is obviously a tough matchup, this is a player who, at the peak of his powers, is matchup-proof.
CeeDee Lamb scored 24.2 PPR points against the Chiefs during the Thanksgiving upset, and that was despite Dallas often disclosing its plan to “go to 88.” I don’t think the Texans need to announce it; they just need to do it.
Dalton Schultz, TE
Nobody is going to fall in love with the upside of Dalton Schultz, but I encourage you to look at the position more than the boxscores.
Since the Week 6 bye, Schultz has been a TE1 in five of seven games, getting there almost solely based on volume 8+ targets in four of his past five games).
This offensive line struggles to run block, and with Jayden Higgins working his way into the WR2 role, the receivers C.J. Stroud is looking at most are vertical options. That means that Schultz is, in some capacity, their running game via short passes.
I wouldn’t bet “overs” on his yardage totals, but you don’t need the yards if the receptions are piling up as they have for him this season (5+ grabs in nine of his past 11).
The Chiefs are going to aim to pressure Stroud and take away Nico Collins: yes, their defense is talented, but isn’t that the perfect run out for a low aDOT TE like Schultz?
