Tank Dell's First Touchdown in 687 Days: Stroud Says 'I Owed Him One' After the 63-Yard Score
Dell caught four passes for 105 yards in the 44-22 win at SoFi - his second game back from the knee injury that cost him all of 2025 and half of this season. The 63-yard bomb was his first trip to the end zone since before the injury.
The scoreboard line from Sunday's 44-22 rout at SoFi Stadium says Tank Dell caught a 63-yard touchdown. The calendar says more: it was Dell's first touchdown in 687 days, Yardbarker reports - the end of a road that ran through a serious knee injury near the tail of his second season, an entire missed 2025 season, and a 2026 season that began with him on injured reserve.
C.J. Stroud, who threw the pass, used his post-game interview to make sure the moment got its weight. 'I owed him one. I missed him down over here to the right,' Stroud said. 'He's a heck of a football player. I'm just so proud of him. His resilience, the perseverance. The faith that he has in God. I'm just so proud of that guy and just to have that moment. ... We'll try to do it again another week.' The two arrived in Houston together in the 2023 draft - Stroud second overall, Dell in the third round - and until the injury they were the young core of the Texans' passing game.
Dell's return is two games old and already changing the offense's shape. He debuted in Week 7 against the Giants, and against the Chargers he finished with four catches for 105 yards; across the two games he has five catches for 148 yards, two of them longer than 40 yards. That is the deep threat Houston played half a season without, and it arrives while Stroud is on his best run of the year - five touchdowns Sunday on 21-of-35 passing for 384 yards, and 10 touchdown passes across his last three games.
Houston has won three of its last four after starting 2-5, and the revival now has its most emotional piece back on the field. The Texans go to Cleveland on November 15. Dell's line for that trip is the simplest one in football: available.
