What Higgins’ torn ACL means for the Texans
Mike Florio and Chris Simms react to Jayden Higgins tearing his ACL during Texans practice, examining what the injury means for Houston and players such as Tank Dell.
Video Transcript
Jayden Higgins, Texans receiver, out for the rec- for the season with a torn ACL.
The injury occurred during Tuesday's joint practice with the Raiders.
He was a second round pick in 2025.
Had 41 catches, 525 yards, six touchdowns in 10 games last year.
That's a pretty good performance- Yeah for 10 games- Mm-hmm last year.
So a guy that they were hoping would be ascending, a guy who they were hoping would be providing another reliable target for C.J.
Stroud as he tries to reverse the narrative that popped up last year, especially in the playoffs, they now won't have Jayden Higgins for 2026.
No, and that, that stinks.
'Cause, like, you know, like you just mentioned, he really came on strong at the end of the year.
Nico Collins is awesome.
He's one of the most underrated receivers in football.
He can do it all.
So he's the man, but man, it puts pressure on everybody else in this group.
Because it's, again, back into our kind of unproven commodities conversation.
Yeah, you had Higgins, who was starting to prove himself.
Xavier Hutchinson's done some good things, but again, not a star.
Jalen Nail is also a second round pick, or later in the second round pick, out of the same school of Jayden Higgins, is Iowa State.
He might have been third round.
I might be wrong about that.
He is third round.
But he's just coming off a little bit of an injury, I think it was a hamstring, to go along with that.
And then that puts this Hi- Higgins injury, puts Tank Dell's situation a little bit more in the spotlight because now you go, "Damn, you know, we need him.
He's gotta get out here and play."
And I know things are looking better.
We know that.
I've seen practice clips and stuff like that.
But again, it's just like we're not gonna feel warm and cozy about that until he gets out there in the regular season and we see him go full bore.
So yeah, there's, there's definitely some, some concern there at the receiver position for the Houston Texans.
Horrible injury suffered by Dell in Kansas City on a Saturday late in the 2024 regular season.
Missed all of last year.
I didn't think he'd ever play again.
The fact that he is even in position to return is amazing in and of itself and puts him at the top of the list, in my mind, for comeback player of the year.
Yeah.
Now he's gotta have a- Good point decent performance, and we thought Damar Hamlin would be comeback player of the year for just, you know, putting a helmet on and stepping out onto the field, and Joe Flacco had, had other plans there, and the voters had other plans as well.
But Tank Dell should be in a position, especially now, especially now with Jayden Higgins not there, they're gonna need Tank Dell.
He's gonna have the opportunities to have the kind of numbers that would make it even more obvious he should be the comeback player of the year.
Yeah.
Y- I mean, you would hope that.
Jalen Nail, I believe, you know, was drafted to kinda do that same type of thing as Tank Dell.
I think he's got a little bit more explosiveness, a guy that can, like, win on the outside and just run by you that way.
But if they could get Jalen Nail healthy with a Tank Dell and a Nico Collins, and then of course a Dalton Schultz at tight end, and Montgomery at running back, you go, "Oh, okay."
You know, they might not be household names yet, but people in the NFL go, "Yeah, there's potential there."
So we'll see where that goes.
But we know C.J.
Stroud's gotta play a lot better.
They've flipped around that offensive line.
It's the second year here with the offensive coordinator, and hopefully they can be a more dangerous team on the offensive side of the ball because, as we've said a million times, if their offense was just middle of the road, top 10, 12, you know, and playing at that level in the playoffs last year, they might've gone to the Super Bowl.
But the offense let them down, and that's gonna be the big question mark this year
