Tank Dell Is Finally Back for Houston, and Christian Kirk Is Close for San Francisco as Tuesday Moves Clear the Way

HOUSTON

The two most telling moves on Tuesday’s transaction wire were not signings. They were subtractions — and both of them point to a wide receiver coming back. The Houston Texans waived linebacker Jamal Hill, and the San Francisco 49ers released defensive tackle Naquan Jones, according to Pro Football Rumors’ roundup of Tuesday’s minor NFL transactions. Pro Football Rumors reported that the Hill and Jones cuts will respectively clear space for a pair of wide receiver debuts: Tank Dell is expected to come off injured reserve and make his first appearance since Week 16 of the 2024 season, and Christian Kirk is in the injured-reserve return window for San Francisco, a potential boost for what Pro Football Rumors called a battered receiving corps.

Neither move is official confirmation that either receiver plays this weekend, and the two situations are not identical. Dell’s return has been announced by his head coach and pointed at a specific game: Sunday at home against the New York Giants. Kirk’s is a window, a week of practice and a decision still to come before Sunday’s trip to Atlanta. But Tuesday is when the roster math started moving for both of them, and roster math in October is rarely an accident.

Twenty-two months later, Dell gets his Sunday

Start with the longer road. Dell was injured on Dec. 21, 2024, in Week 16 against the Kansas City Chiefs, hurt while making a 30-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter, according to Field Level Media. He dislocated his kneecap, tore three ligaments — the ACL, MCL and LCL — and tore the meniscus. He missed the entire 2025 season. He started this season on injured reserve as well, and the Texans opened his 21-day practice window on Oct. 6, with Dell beginning to practice the following day, according to Field Level Media. Houston held him out of the Week 6 trip to London, where the Texans beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 34-31, and then head coach DeMeco Ryans confirmed on Monday that Dell is ready to return.

Ryans is deliberately keeping the bar for Sunday low, and he explained why, according to Field Level Media. “No huge expectations from what he needs to do,” Ryans said. “We’re all just going to be excited. I know me personally, I’m just going to be excited to see him just out there for the first time in (nearly) two years, just getting some game action. I’m just thankful, grateful for him to have this opportunity to return. I don’t have any expectations. I’m just happy to see him out there and that’s the only thing that matters.” What Ryans would not temper was what he has seen in practice. “He’s still quick as ever,” Ryans said, according to Field Level Media. “Ask our defenders who was covering him the past couple weeks, he’s been putting us in some tough matchups and practice the past two weeks. I expect him to go out on Sunday and do the same thing. Really stress defenders and that’s what Tank is going to do with his speed, his playmaking ability.”

Before the injury, Dell had quickly become one of quarterback C.J. Stroud’s most productive targets. A third-round pick in 2023 out of the University of Houston, he caught 47 passes for 709 yards and seven touchdowns in 11 games as a rookie before a fractured fibula ended that season early, then added 51 catches for 667 yards and three touchdowns in 2024 before the knee injury ended that one, too. The totals, as Field Level Media noted, are 98 catches for 1,376 yards and 10 touchdowns in 25 games, with 18 starts. Dell, who turns 27 on Oct. 29, is not returning to the same depth chart he left. He joins a receiver group led by Nico Collins and the newly acquired Marvin Harrison Jr., with Jaylin Noel coming off a four-catch, 107-yard, one-touchdown game against Jacksonville in London, according to Texans Wire. Stroud threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns in that win, and Houston, after an 0-4 start, has now won two straight to reach 2-4. Sunday’s home game against the Giants begins an important stretch, with a bye week to follow before a Nov. 8 trip to face the Los Angeles Chargers.

Hill’s departure is the practical side of that return. Hill, 25, was a sixth-round pick by Houston in 2024, the No. 188 overall selection out of Oregon, according to NFL Trade Rumors. Waived at the end of the preseason and re-signed to the practice squad, he was promoted to the active roster in early September and appeared in five games this season, recording four tackles, according to NFL Trade Rumors. The Texans also made four practice-squad moves on Tuesday, signing defensive tackle Kyonte Hamilton and defensive back Collin Wright and releasing defensive tackle Aaron Graves and quarterback Mark Gronowski, according to NFL Trade Rumors.

In San Francisco, the need is not subtle

The 49ers do not need Kirk back as a nice story. They need him back as a healthy body who can run a route. San Francisco is 6-0 for the first time since 2019 after holding off the Washington Commanders 23-17 on Monday night, according to Reuters, but the win cost them more at receiver. Mike Evans, who had been listed as questionable, caught three passes for 94 yards before exiting just before halftime after aggravating his Achilles injury, according to Reuters. Deebo Samuel Sr. was already out with a hamstring injury. Ricky Pearsall is on season-ending injured reserve with a knee injury, and De’Zhaun Stribling and Demarcus Robinson have also been sidelined, according to reports from RotoWire and NBC Sports Bay Area. Against Washington, San Francisco’s receiver snaps were led by Jordan Watkins, followed by Brandin Cooks, Evans, Jacob Cowing and the elevated Malik Turner, according to Niners Nation’s snap counts.

That is the context for Tuesday’s release of Jones. Jones, 28, appeared in three games for San Francisco this season and totaled two tackles, according to NBC Sports. His departure follows the return of defensive lineman James Thompson Jr., who came back Monday night after missing time since Week 2 with a high ankle sprain, while Jones was inactive for that game, according to NBC Sports. NBC Sports reported the 49ers could be making the move to clear a roster spot for Kirk. Niners Nation added a note of caution about the math: linebacker Dre Greenlaw’s suspension is also over, and the 49ers will still need to make another roster move once they activate Kirk from injured reserve. Jones, a veteran who is not subject to waivers, becomes a free agent; across six seasons he has appeared in 63 games with eight starts, totaling 104 tackles, 6.5 sacks and five passes defensed, according to NBC Sports.

Kirk’s three months as a spectator

Kirk has been waiting since the very start of camp. He hurt his calf in the first training camp practice in July and practiced on a limited basis for the first time since then only last week, according to the Associated Press. The 49ers placed him on injured reserve ahead of the regular season, and he was a spectator for the first five games, according to NBC Sports Bay Area. San Francisco opened his 21-day practice window on Thursday, according to RotoWire, and Kirk was listed as questionable for Monday’s game against Washington before being downgraded to out, according to NBC Sports. Head coach Kyle Shanahan explained the decision after the Week 6 win over Seattle, in remarks reported by Niners Nation: “Yeah, he’s a possibility for next week. He had two good practices in. It was just his first two practices of the year. We were down on wideouts, so it was still something we discussed, but we decided to give it another week.”

For his part, Kirk has been clear that he does not see this as a farewell tour. “I believe I have a lot of really good football left,” Kirk said last week, according to NBC Sports Bay Area. “In no way, shape or form, I thought about anything other than that. It’s just all about working to get my body back to feeling great, to be able to go out and play.” The resume backs the ambition. Kirk, 29, signed a one-year deal worth up to $6 million with San Francisco in March, according to Field Level Media, one week after the 49ers had added Evans. A second-round pick by Arizona in 2018 out of Texas A&M, he has 432 receptions for 5,415 yards and 30 touchdowns in 106 games over eight seasons with the Cardinals, Jaguars and Texans, according to the 49ers’ official player biography. His best season came in 2022 with Jacksonville: 84 receptions, 1,108 yards and eight touchdowns. Last season in Houston he managed only 28 catches for 239 yards and one touchdown in 13 games, then reminded everyone what he can still do in the postseason, with 10 catches for 164 yards and two touchdowns in two playoff games, including eight for 144 yards and a score in a wild-card win over Pittsburgh, according to the 49ers and Field Level Media.

One Sunday, two different kinds of return

If the week breaks the way both teams hope, Sunday brings a neat symmetry in the sports calendar: Houston hosts the Giants with Dell back in uniform for the first time in 22 months, and San Francisco visits Atlanta with Kirk in line for his first game as a 49er, a debut RotoWire expects this week after the extra week of caution. The expectations should stay different, because the absences were different. Dell is returning from an injury that took a full season and more, to a team that can afford to ease him in behind Collins, Harrison and Noel, on a day his coach has framed as a celebration before it is an evaluation. Kirk is returning from three months out to a 6-0 team whose receiver room has been thinned week by week, where a stable veteran who can line up at multiple spots and give Brock Purdy a dependable target may be asked to matter right away.

That is why two of Tuesday’s smallest moves deserve a second look. Waiving a young linebacker and releasing a veteran defensive tackle will not lead many transaction roundups. But in Houston, the empty locker belongs to the space Dell needs to come back. In San Francisco, it is one more step toward a receiver room that finally adds a name instead of losing one. Follow both teams this week on Previously’s Texans and 49ers pages as the activations become official.