A short receiver with some high expectations" />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesHorizontal - WhiteBattle Red Bloga Houston Texans communityLog In or Sign UpLog InSign UpFanpostsFanshotsTexansOddsAboutMastheadCommunity GuidelinesStubHubMoreAll 322 blogs on Horizontal - WhiteFanposts Fanshots Texans StoriesScheduleRosterStatsYahoo Texans NewsYahoo Texans Team PageYahoo Texans ReportYahoo Texans Depth ChartYahoo Texans TransactionsYahoo Texans PhotosOdds About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub ✕Filed under:Real Nick Martin Jersey , Actual, Thought-Provoking Texans Analysis2019 Houston Texans OffseasonBreaking Down Keke Coutee’s Route TreeNew,11commentsA short receiver with some high expectationsCDTShareTweetShareShareBreaking Down Keke Coutee’s Route TreePhoto by Tim Warner/Getty ImagesHailing from Lufkin, Texas, Keke Coutee is on his way to being a premier slot receiver in the league. Coutee’s rookie season began and ended with brilliant performances against the Colts that garnered attention throughout the league. Due to several lingering hamstring injuries, Coutee was sidelined or limited for most of the season. Now with a full offseason and time to heal under his belt, the expectations are high for him to immediately impact the Texans offense. Neither Will Fuller or DeAndre Hopkins are present at OTAs currently, which means that Coutee and QB Deshaun Watson can spend this entire summer working on their chemistry. If you go back to watch the Colts playoff game (which I do not recommend for your health as a Texans fan), watch how the Texans manipulate the Colts’ defense with Coutee’s motion and speed over the middle. In that game, they both laid the groundwork for a 2019 season primed for a high-octane offensive attack. Coutee will be playing in the role popularized by Wes Welker and Julian Edelman in the New England Patriots offense. In this slot receiver position, Coutee will become Watson’s safety valve, an elusive diversion in the backfield, and a linebacker’s worse nightmare. Here are the routes and concepts that Coutee is mastering to take the next step in his game.Juke or Option RouteDepending on the offensive system or what you’ve heard it called in the past, this route is a staple of the slot receiver’s arsenal of plays. This route has three principles 1) timing with the quarterback 2) coverage by a linebacker 3) quick decision making by the receiver. Similarly Cullen Gillaspia Houston Texans Jersey , there are three options available when running the Juke route. And Keke Coutee has displayed all of them.Option 1: The SitWhen a slower defender such as a linebacker is faced with a slot receiver, they have a tendency to overplay the route and react poorly when the receiver approaches quickly. This play is a guaranteed five yards when the receiver reads the defense correctly.In this play, Coutee watches as the linebacker indiscriminately drops back into zone coverage and does not close the space between him and Coutee. Once Coutee realizes the defender’s coverage, he quickly turns, squares up the the QB, and finds an open area to get the first down. The best part is Coutee’s ability to flip his hips and get almost 10 yards after the catch.Option 2: The OutWhen the linebacker is bracketing the slot receiver to the inside in man coverage, the best option is to dart outside into the flats for an easy five yard catch. Going where the defender is not is the name of the game.Coutee comes back to the ball for about two yards to guarantee the catch and distance himself from the defender. He does an excellent job of not revealing where he is going until he is as close to the defender as possible. This forces the defender to either stop moving their feet or guess which direction they are going. On this play, the defender stops moving his feet which gives Coutee enough space to make the catch.Here is another version of this route by Coutee.Option 3: The Juke The lesser-used of the three for Coutee, this option takes advantage of two high safeties with slow linebackers over the middle. The goal is to work up field to find an open area while remaining in the middle where he is easily found by Watson.Since Coutee doesn't know when the ball will be thrown to him, he has been taught to run one way and face the QB. He physically contacts the linebacker because at this point Coutee will be able to outrun the linebacker in a short distance every time. It takes years to understand NFL defenses and where they empty parts of the zone are, but here he does it quite easily and moves the chains for the Texans. With this one route and three options, Coutee could make a living off of picking on slower linebackers and soft zone coverages.The Drag RouteFinding Coutee in the middle of the field will become a norm for Texans fans for several years to come. What is great about the drag route is it’s a short yardage route that can be the check-down option for the QB in his progression reads. Aka, its an easy route that solves a lot of problems. This route is best paired with either another drag route on the opposite side or a pick route such as we have here. Griffin does a great job getting in the way of the other linebacker and the pursuing corner to give Coutee tons of space to run.As Xfinity says; Simple. Easy. Awesome. Its not that the route takes elite skill to run, but rather it requires trust in the QB-WR relationship to know where each other are and This play can easily get a receiver clobbered by a linebacker who can read a QB’s eyes. In the clip below Cullen Gillaspia Jersey 2019 , this is Coutee’s first game back. Because Coutee has barely worked with Watson and they have yet to improve their timing, Watson stares down Coutee before the throw. Once they spend this summer ironing out their timing, plays like this will become second nature to them.The Jet SweepWe’ve seen several wide outs come through this offense and find marginal success running this play. What none of them do better than Coutee is go from a full sprint facing the sideline, to working up the field, to reading blocks, and making people miss.Nothing irks defensive coordinators more than the lack of discipline in reads that are created by successful jet sweeps. Coutee is eye candy on a jet sweep and cannot be disregarded. Especially if we have quick lineman who can get out and block downfield, this play works well against all defenses. Plus, it inflates the QBs passing numbers with good YAC.Vision is key for this play to work. Yes quality blocking can make or break this play, but if the runner cannot find a hole this play turns into a zero yard gain.The Ghost MotionIf there is a better name for this route, I could not find it. Willingly will tip my hat to anyone who can verify if this is the correct name of the route or has the right one on hand. This long developing route can take on several forms, but at its core is a devised to create misdirection in the backfield. When timed properly, this route looks like a potential jet sweep and forces the defense to over-pursue before the ball is snapped. Once the play begins, Coutee’s job is to disappear... and reappear in the flats with the ball in his hand. The Texans to my knowledge first used this play with Cecil Shorts, but found better results when running Bruce Ellington as the ghost in the backfield. Now Color Rush Cullen Gillaspia Jersey , with Coutee, they’ve made it a recognizable part of the Texans playbook. Here is a pretty famous version of the play.With Coutee as the third option, he seemingly can become a “ghost” with Hopkins and Fuller streaking across the field. With so much going on each play, having a designed outlet for Watson where the defense purposely takes their eyes of the receiver is a great concept for the offense.Coutee may not run the entire route tree, and that is okay. The Texans have yet to experiment with running Coutee deep (probably due to the hamstring issues) that Texas Tech did when he was there. This offseason may be more important to Coutee’s development than that of just about everyone on the roster. Save for D’Onta Foreman, Martinas Rankin, and the Jordan twins, Coutee could have the greatest leap from 2018 to 2019. Expectations that the Texans would use the franchise tag on Jadeveon Clowney were realized on Monday when the team announced the move a day ahead of the deadline to use it.With that out of the way, the two sides now have until July 15 to work out a long-term deal and Aaron Wilson of the reports that such an agreement is “not close” to happening at this point. That’s not a great surprise as recent reports indicated the Texans were happy to have Clowney play out the year on the tag and that deadlines tend to spur action on the contract front.Given how franchise tag situations tend to play out, it’s also no surprise that Wilson reports that Clowney is not expected to sign the franchise tender anytime soon. Wilson adds that Clowney isn’t expected to take part in any offseason work with the team either and that missing training camp could also be on the agenda.Clowney stands to make at least $15.967 million under the tag as that is 120 percent higher than last year’s salary. That’s higher than the tag for linebackers, but below the defensive end tag of $17.12 million and the Texans listed him at both positions when announcing the tag.