Could at least one familiar name be cut?
Some of you may know me by my actual name. For those that are committed Houston Astros fans, they may recognize the surname. My second cousin pitched a third of an inning for the Astros in 2006. Yes, I am a proud cousin, but this story has a point. He pitched only a third of an inning at the major league level, but pitched for team Italy in the World Baseball Classic, and was a closer for a Rice University team that seemed to live in the College World Series.
The point is that what we see in the NBA, NFL, and MLB is the tip of the iceberg. Depending on the sport, the ice runs pretty deep underneath the surface. In the football world, you have the CFL and the UFL, but you also have well over 100 universities, and thousands of high schools. The idea that someone could be brilliant at the college level and suddenly disappear at the NFL level is not unusual. Every single player drafted was one of the best players on his team in college and probably the best player on his high school team.
John Metchie and Xavier Hutchinson are just two of those guys. Sometimes it is injury or cancer that derails a career before it even gets started. Sometimes you just find that everyone else is better. It is probably a good time to look at the numbers they produced their last year in college:
Metchie: 96 receptions, 1142 yards, 8 TD
Hutchinson: 107 receptions, 1171 yards, 6 TD
Hutchinson led the Big 12 in receptions three years in a row and led in receiving yards his last season. I remember being extremely pumped that we could draft a receiver of his caliber that late in the draft. Metchie seemed like a lock to be a good slot receiver at the very least.
This is one area where cold, hard analysis meets real life and stuff that occurs off the field. Cancer sucks. There is not a soul on the planet that is rooting against Metchie. He had to overcome a torn ACL and a lost season to cancer. Either one can and has derailed careers. Having to overcome both is something more than 99 percent of us are capable of doing.
However, in just two years, he has caught less than 60 percent of his targets. He has had a case of the drops on occasion, but just hasn’t been able to gain separation at the NFL level. The same is true for Hutchinson. He has caught less than 50 percent of his targets. If we just look at the cold facts we would have to surmise that neither is good enough to be a productive receiver at the NFL level.
Again, real life and cold, hard facts don’t always mix. One can look at the fact that they didn’t get separation and it can’t be denied. Yet, we should ask why. Is it because they aren’t good enough to get separation or because the scheme didn’t allow them to get separation? 2025 brings a new season and a new scheme. So, it brings another opportunity to prove that it wasn’t about them.
Unfortunately, every new season also brings new competitors looking to take their jobs. There is Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel. There is Braxton Berrios. There is Nico Collins and Christian Kirk. Then, there are guys on the outside looking in like Justin Watson, Xavier Johnson, and Johnnie Johnson Jr. Jared Wayne has gotten rave reviews as well in mini-camp and the early part of training camp.
That’s eleven wide receivers for only five or six slots. Outside of the two rookies, Kirk and Collins are penciled in as starters. That means that Metchie and Hutchinson are embroiled in a battle for one or two slots with the other five guys. The Texans need kick returners, gunners, and other flexibility from their fifth and sixth wide receiver. Neither Metchie nor Hutchinson have done that in the past.
I can’t root against either guy. However, each spot on a 53 man roster is valuable. The Texans can’t possibly afford to put someone on the roster for sentimental reasons. Each player has to provide something the team needs. If a wide receiver is there that can get open and those guys can’t then they can’t stay. It’s really as simple as that.
However, it is important to realize some perspective. It is not failure. Being a starting wide receiver in the league means you are probably among the top 10 percent of professional receivers in the world and when we include college we are probably getting closer to one or two percent. They just might not be in that group. Every one of the 99 percent has a different story and a different reason for things not working out. They are reasons. They are not excuses. We are all rooting for them here, but we are Houston Texans fans first and we want what is best for the team.