Texans’ Will Fuller breaks collarbone

The Houston Texans will be without wide receiver Will Fuller for the time being. Reports say Fuller broke his collarbone in practice today.

Just this morning we heard the news of Giants’ wide receiver Sterling Shepard going down with a major injury. Now it looks like the Houston Texans have suffered the same fate.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Texans’ wide receiver Will Fuller has suffered a broken collarbone. Reports say the incident occurred when Fuller went up for a catch and hit the ground. He will be out indefinitely.

Fuller, 23, is only entering his second season in the league. He started 13 games last season and finished with 635 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He also was a threat in the return game.

Just the other day we heard head coach Bill O’Brien praise Fuller for his play in camp. Now the wide receiver will be sidelined for a foreseeable amount of time. It’s a frustrating injury to say the least, especially since the first preseason game hasn’t even been played.

With Fuller out, this opens the door for Braxton Miller and Jaelen Strong. Both have loads of potential, but haven’t been able to live up to those expectations yet. They combined for just 230 receiving yards last season and that will need to change. They’ll now tasked with being the No. 2 and No. 3 receivers behind Hopkins. With rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson likely under center to start the season, this could be a big ask.

An offense that relied heavily on the production of DeAndre Hopkins last season will be put in the same situation again. He’ll see most of the targets this season and should be in line to have a career year in terms of numbers.

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With no timetable for Fuller’s return, this will be an injury that the Texans’ medical staff take with caution. Once a collarbone has been broken, it is susceptible to happening again. For a player with a long career ahead of him, there’s no need to rush him back with the risk of a re-injury.