Kit Leong / Shutterstock.com
Houston’s receiving corps just took a significant hit.
Jayden Higgins tore his ACL during Tuesday’s joint practice with the Las Vegas Raiders, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. That’s it for his season.
The injury happened during 11-on-11 drills. Higgins was running a route, hit the ground awkwardly in the end zone, and walked off under his own power – though not without a limp, according to ESPN’s DJ Bien-Aime. Medical tests later confirmed the torn ACL.
A rookie season cut short
Houston took Higgins with the No. 34 overall pick in this year’s draft, landing him out of Iowa State. He didn’t waste any time making an impact.
Through his rookie campaign, Higgins hauled in 41 receptions for 525 yards and six touchdowns. Not bad production for a guy who was never meant to be the No. 1 target – that job belonged to Nico Collins, with tight end Dalton Schultz rounding out the trio as Houston’s top three pass-catchers.
Collins, for what it’s worth, kept doing what he’s done for three straight years now; he finished 2025 with 1,117 receiving yards and six touchdowns on 120 targets, his third consecutive 1,000-yard season. The Texans rode that production to a 12-5 record and their third straight playoff appearance, though they fell short in the divisional round.
Now Higgins is done for the year.
That leaves quarterback C.J. Stroud with some rebuilding to do in terms of who he’s targeting downfield. Xavier Hutchinson figures to see more snaps, and so does Tank Dell – assuming he’s actually healthy enough to contribute.
Dell’s own situation is worth watching closely. He missed all of 2025 recovering from a knee injury, so there’s real uncertainty about how much he can handle right out of the gate. Jaylin Noel isn’t fully in the clear either; he’s been dealing with a broken finger and a hamstring issue that’s lingered throughout training camp.
Depth was already a question mark for this receiving room. Losing Higgins just made it a bigger one.
Houston opens its regular season on Sept 13 against the Buffalo Bills – a game that now carries a bit more intrigue given how thin the receiver depth chart suddenly looks.
