Darren Fells has a new home. On Monday, the Texans agreed to sign the tight end to a one-year deal, as Mark Berman of FOX 26 tweets. 
Fells, 33 next month, signed a three-year, $12MM deal with Cleveland just last offseason. But, earlier this month, the Browns cut him after being unable to find a suitable trade.
Fells was scheduled to carry a cap charge of $3.7MM. Instead, the Browns sent him packing and took on a dead money hit of $1.4MM.
In his lone season in Cleveland, Fells appeared in all 16 games, but played on just 38.5% of the Browns’ offensive snaps and managed only 11 receptions. While he wasn’t given many opportunities behind starting tight end David Njoku, Fells was effective when targeted. Among tight ends with fewer than 25 catches, Fells finished third in Football Outsiders’ DVOA, meaning he was productive on a per-play basis.
While Fells has historically been praised as a blocking tight end, 2018 wasn’t a banner year for him in that regard, at least according to Pro Football Focus. PFF assigned Fells a 72.9 pass-blocking grade, which put him near the middle of the pack among his position group, but a 55.9 grade in the run game, a mark which ranked near the bottom of the league.
Fells will bring his blocking knowledge to the Texans’ TE group, which currently includes Ryan Griffin, Jordan Thomas, and Jordan Akins.