Darren Fells is a career quality starter — a tight end whose body of work places Fells in the top half of all players at the position historically. The Knox model values sustained contribution over flash, and Fells's career arc reflects exactly that kind of reliable professional-grade performance.
Reached 11% of the all-time Receiving Touchdowns leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.
A 0–100 scale where 100 = matched the all-time leaderat this position. Built only from visible encyclopedia data — career production vs. the all-time leader, plus efficiency (EPA) and comparable-player confidence — so it's a transparent context score, not a subjective rating. Tiers: Elite ≥ 85 · Strong ≥ 65 · Solid ≥ 45 · Depth < 45. Comparable-player confidence: 84%.
Career Value · VORP
37 career value over replacement — #2411 all-time of 4,649. 5.3/season above a replacement-level TE.
Fan Rating
Rate Darren Fells — All-Time
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StatVault aggregates multiple open-licensed and proprietary sources into a single profile. The depth indicator above shows which layers are available for this player.
Pre-1999 players have bio + draft data but counting stats are not available from any freely-licensed source. Players with ★ Career Only see verified career aggregates from nflverse draft_picks.
Production per snap — the box score normalized by opportunity. SIS is z-scored within tight ends, shrinkage-regularized so small samples don't spike, over the NFL snap-count era (2012+).
Amber = this player (normalized to own peak). Indigo = average tight ends aging curve. Group peak age: 25. Source: StatVault KV-H era (1999+).
Receiving
Defense
Snap Counts (2012–present)
Proprietary StatVault Metrics
College stats are not imported for this profile yet.
StatVault has the verified college attribution (UC Irvine), but no parsed college box-score table is present in this profile artifact. The section stays here so every profile has a consistent college-stats landing point without fabricating unavailable rows.
Career teammates and draft class, derived from year-by-year rosters — every name is linked.
Darren inherited the Detroit Lions TE room from Eric Ebron (2014–2017), and handed it to T.J. Hockenson (2019–2022).
Darren inherited the Houston Texans TE room from Jordan Akins (2018–2022), and handed it to Dalton Schultz (2023–2025).
The room is reconstructed from arrival order among durable members (≥4 seasons with the club) at the player’s position group — a lineage by arrival, not a week-by-week depth chart. Distinct from the league-wide positional GOAT torch.
Statistical + physical similarity across every player in the database, position-relevant (0–100%).
Joined DET (from HOU)
Last recorded season with DET
Joined HOU (from CLE)
Joined CLE (from DET)
Joined DET (from ARI)
Entered the NFL with ARI
From nflverse weekly injury reports · coverage begins 2009.
| Season | Team | Games Out | Designations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | HOU | 0 | W19Questionable· Hip |
| 2016 | ARI | 2 | W5Out· ShoulderW8Out· Ankle |
| 2015 | ARI | 2 | W5Questionable· HipW7Out· ShoulderW8Out· Shoulder |
StatVault's proprietary player intelligence, informed by full career data. How Knox works →
Era-normalized career quality — z-scored against 7-season peers. See all →
Career durability — games played vs. scheduled, across 8 seasons.
Composite score across availability, IR frequency, and injury severity. See all →
Rec Yds translated to the 2025NFL — each season's standing among its own-era peers, projected onto 2025's scoring environment. Modern-era (1999+) coverage.
| Season | Actual Rec Yds | Rec Yds/G | → 2025 Rec Yds | → 2025 /G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 71 | 14.2 | 228+157 | 13.4 |
| 2015 | 311 | 28.3 | 473+162 | 27.9 |
| 2016 | 154 | 17.1 | 294+140 | 17.3 |
| 2017 | 177 | 13.6 | 226+49 | 13.3 |
| 2018 | 117 | 14.6 | 234+117 | 13.8 |
| 2019 | 341 | 22.7 | 411+70 | 24.2 |
| 2020 | 312 | 26 | 477+165 | 28 |
Data: nflverse:players, nflverse:player_stats, nflverse:player_stats_def, nflverse:snap_counts, nflverse:injuries · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 7/31/2026
Courtney Anderson
TE
82% match
2014 Draft ClassmatesFull class →
Wore 5 distinct franchise crests across 8 seasons (2014–2021) — a true nomad. The crest trail: