Through the first six weeks of the season, the Houston Texans' offense is really starting to find its groove going into a big matchup at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers in Week 7.
The Texans are coming off their biggest win of the season where the offense totaled 41 points and 368 yards of total offense.
The unit had a big boost in the return of running back Joe Mixon while quarterback C.J. Stroud threw three touchdowns through the air. While everything seems to be clicking at a high level, there's still one player the Texans are hoping to get going in the passing game going forward.
That player is tight end Dalton Schultz. After a solid first season in Houston in 2023, Schultz has been off to a slow start after the first six weeks of the 2024 season.
Through the first six games last season, Schultz had 21 receptions for 215 yards and three touchdowns. Heading into Sunday's game, he has 18 receptions for 143 yards and is still looking for his first touchdown of the season.
Opportunity hasn't been the issue. In this same span of games last season, Schultz had 32 targets. He's had 30 targets this season. The issue has just been cleaning up the connection between him and his quarterback and they're aiming to fix that soon.
"I know statistically he hasn't had the greatest start as far as receptions," offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik said on Friday. "We've missed a couple of throws. Him and C.J. are grinding through the connections. We've had some [opportunities] that we haven't made and as the year goes that'll continue clicking."
Getting Schultz involved more in the passing game and hitting on these connections can help take the offense to a new level, especially with wide receiver Nico Collins out of the lineup.
The Texans have been trying to hit the big plays with their tight end down field and over the middle of the field and it's only a matter of time until they connect. Sunday's game will be a big opportunity to do so. Over the last two weeks, the Packers defense has allowed 17 receptions for 164 yards against opposing tight ends.
While Schultz hasn't been able to show up on the stat sheet in a big way yet this season, he's still been a huge factor for the unit off the box score.
"We have a lot of movements in our offense, there's some different formations, there's some different words, and when you have somebody back there that's not always the quarterback, so everyone's not asking one guy all the questions, when you have somebody else back there that can quickly give an answer it's huge," Slowik added. "He really takes pride in doing that and that's helped C.J. immensely."
Slowik's claim to fame so far as an offensive coordinator has been his work with pre-snap movement and different formations with his weapons to create mis-matches. It's a confusing thing for players to understand each and every snap and having a guy like Schultz on the field has been helping everyone understand their assignments.
"He's like a coach on the field," Stroud said on Thursday. "He helps me a ton with the run game. He's intelligent, I could see him being like a OC one day, he's so smart. He takes on a lot of responsibility that he doesn't really have to but he does it. He puts in the extra hours. I tip my hat to Dalton. I know that we'll start connecting more and I know that we'll start feeding off each other and our chemistry is really high."
The Texans will need this connection to come alive on Sunday if they hope to come away with a road victory in what could very well be a high scoring affair in Green Bay.
