Iowa Football: C.J. Fiedorowicz Career Season In 2016 With Houston Texans

A look at former Iowa football tight end, C.J. Fiedorowicz, career season in 2016

In three season with Iowa football, tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz recorded 899 receiving yards and 10 receiving touchdowns on 91 receptions. It has him ranked 25th in Iowa football history in receptions, 45th in receiving yards and tied for 17th in receiving touchdowns.

It also led to the Houston Texans taking a chance on him in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Fiedorowicz’s third NFL season concluded last weekend when the Texans lost 34-16 to the New England Patriots in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs.

It was the second straight season Houston made the playoffs, but this year marked the first time Fiedorowicz proved why the Texans took a chance on him in the third round.

Over his first two NFL seasons, he played in 31 of 32 games and started 22, but he was mostly used as a blocking tight end. He recorded a measly 21 receptions for 195 yards and two touchdowns in the first two seasons of his career.

Unlike most tight ends nowadays, the Texans liked his ability as a blocker. Fiedorowicz’s style of play was similar to how tight ends used to play before they became seemingly an extra receiver on the field.

Although, while he continued to be a solid blocker for Houston, Fiedorowicz had a breakout season as a receiver.

Eight quarterbacks have started for the Texans over Fiedorowicz’s short three-year career, but prior to this season Houston relied on long-time backups and had younger quarterbacks make spot starts when their starter was hurt. Even though Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian Hoyer, Houston’s main starting quarterbacks over the past two seasons, aren’t top-tier quarterbacks, both can throw downfield and don’t need to lean on a short passing game.

This season, after giving big money to young Brock Osweiler, the Texans had to change their passing attack. They still passed around 54 percent of the time, but they averaged 0.7 yards fewer per pass attempt, which is telling of them taking fewer shots downfield.

As a result, tight ends Fiedorowicz and Ryan Griffin became heavily involved in the pass game. A year after combining for 58 targets, Fiedorowicz and Griffin had 89 and 74 targets, respectively, in 2016. Fiedorowicz racked up the 10th most targets among tight ends this season.

Also, leading receiver DeAndre Hopkins saw 41 fewer targets and averaged 1.5 fewer yards per reception, which shows that the addition of Will Fuller V wasn’t the only reason his numbers went down.

In turn, it evidently helped Fiedorowicz become more than just a blocking tight end. He finished second on the team with 54 receptions, third with 559 receiving yards and led the team with four touchdown grabs.

The change in how Houston used Fiedorowicz came in the fourth week of the season against the Tennessee Titans. After recording just two catches for seven yards through the first three weeks, Fiedorowicz only failed to record three receptions in two of his last 14 games.

It became evident during the playoffs that the Texans won’t solely use him as a blocker moving forward. He finished with five receptions for 71 yards and a touchdown in the postseason.

In fact, the Texans ran a designed play for Fiedorowicz in the red zone against New England to get him open for a touchdown. Houston faked two reverses with Fiedorowicz as their only target on that side of the field. It’s something the Texans would not have even thought of doing last season.

From Dallas Clark to Scott Chandler to now C.J. Fiedorowicz, Iowa football has a long history of producing NFL-caliber tight ends. Fiedorowicz probably won’t ever be a Pro Bowl-caliber tight end, but he’s better than what he showed through his first two seasons. He’s starting to finally shine and become a valuable part of Houston’s offense.

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Plus, to make it even better, his 80 fantasy points this season put him as the 17th best fantasy tight end after failing to crack the top 50 in each of his first two seasons. Expect to see a lot more Fiedorowicz next season, which makes it reasonable to draft the former Hawkeye in fantasy leagues.