Tank Dell’s injury Saturday has officially knocked out the Houston Texans wide receiver for the remainder of the season.
Dell, along with starting safety Jimmie Ward, were placed on injured reserve by the Texans on Monday.
Dell suffered a dislocated kneecap – which also included a torn ACL ‘and other damage’ – during the third quarter of the Texans’ Saturday clash with the Kansas City Chiefs. The wideout had caught a touchdown pass from quarterback C.J. Stroud before colliding with teammate Jared Wayne as he fell to the ground.
The second-year receiver immediately grabbed at his knee and received medical attention from trainers on the field. Eventually, Dell was carted off on a stretcher and taken to a Kansas City hospital for further treatment.
It was the latest in what has been a rough 12 months for the young receiver, who broke his fibula in a Week 13 game last December and suffered minor injuries in a shooting in Florida in April.
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What happened to Tank Dell?
Dell collided with a teammate while catching a touchdown pass from Stroud in the third quarter of the Texans Week 16 loss to the Chiefs on Saturday.
Despite suffering the injury during the collision, Dell was able to hold onto the ball for the score. He grabbed at his knee right after the play and received medical attention on the field almost immediately.
Dell spent time in a local hospital in Kansas City for the day before he was released and returned to Houston on Sunday.
Tank Dell injury update
On Monday, Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans confirmed that Dell dislocated his kneecap in an injury that also included an ACL tear. He will receive surgery and is out for the remainder of the season.
Dell was released from the Kansas City hospital and returned back to Houston on Sunday.
“Right now, we still will be evaluating to see where he is,” Ryans said Sunday. “He’s still meeting with doctors to see what’s next for him.’
Dell posted a video to his TikTok page on Sunday with clips of himself and voiced over with audio from a Stephen A. Smith interview with Kobe Bryant from 2006.
‘Let it go,’ Bryant’s voice says in the video. ‘It is what it is. You let it go, put it in God’s hands, and he’ll carry it. God is great.
‘God is great. Don’t get no simpler than that, bro…You can know it all you want, but until you got to pick up that cross that you can’t carry, and He picks it up for you and carries you and the cross. Then you know.’
Dell captioned the video, ‘When you want something so bad you got a different type of attachment to it… #NosurrenderNoretreat’
How long is Tank Dell out?
On Monday, Ryans told reporters that Dell’s dislocated kneecap also included a tear of the wideout’s ACL.
Dell will undergo surgery to repair his injured knee and will miss the rest of the Texans’ season. The injury could put the start of this 2025 season in jeopardy, according to Rapoport.
It’s Dell’s second season-ending injury in his two years in the pros. The second-year receiver fractured his fibula during a Week 13 game last year and missed the remainder of his rookie season.
On Sunday, the second-year head coach initially didn’t give a clear answer when asked if Dell’s injury was season-ending.
“We don’t – we’re still evaluating that to see what will happen,” Ryans said. “He still has to talk to doctors and go through all the procedures there.”
After further testing and imaging, it became clear by Monday that the second-year wideout would have to undergo surgery and miss the rest of the season.
(This story has been updated with new information.)
