The Blitz

Isaiah Coulter Is Houston’s Darius Slayton

Blair Andrews
August 27, 2020

In The Blitz, RotoViz writers react to the latest news and help you place it within the context of our 2020 research and recommendations.

The Houston Texans enter their first season since 2012 without DeAndre Hopkins. One unheralded rookie is looking to fill the gap, according to the RotoViz News Feed.

Houston Texans rookie wide receiver Isaiah Coulter’s “speed and fluidity” have stood out during training camp, says Aaron Reiss of The Athletic. Though not expected to have much of a role in 2020, the Rhode Island product could be looking at a key role in 2021, as Houston has multiple receivers entering the final year of their deal. If you’re a dynasty manager and you’ve got room for a dart throw rookie, Coulter has upside in a vertical Bill O’Brien offense next season. He shouldn’t be on the radar in redraft leagues right now.

Yeah, but should he be on the radar in redraft leagues though? Isaiah Coulter was drafted in the fifth round by the Texans, after putting up a 4.45 forty at the combine. Shawn Siegele pegged him as potentially 2020’s version of Darius Slayton. Coulter and Slayton were taken with the exact same pick in the NFL draft, and both possess sub-4.5 speed — Slayton is a little faster while Coulter is a little bigger.

Coulter’s Surprising Prospect Profile

Rhode Island, being an FCS school, does not show up in our tools, so Coulter is missing from the Box Score Scout. But he checks a lot of boxes. He broke out in 2019 with a 31% Dominator Rating and declared after his true junior season — a rarity for an FCS receiver. The fact that he was invited to the combine at all is in itself a strong signal. The fact that he did well enough to bring Robert Woods and Stefon Diggs into his top seven comps in the RotoViz Combine Explorer tells us the invite was warranted.^[1]Admittedly, the five names above those two don’t inspire much confidence.

I plugged Coulter’s numbers into a WR Prospect Lab model that relies on breakout age, draft position, athleticism, and final all-purpose yardage.

It returns some interesting comps. Well, interesting is putting it mildly.

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Footnotes[+]Footnotes[−]

Footnotes
↑1	Admittedly, the five names above those two don’t inspire much confidence.

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Blair Andrews

Managing Editor, Author of The Wrong Read, Occasional Fantasy Football League Winner. All opinions are someone else's.

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