The Houston Texans’ receiver room took a major hit just before Week 1, and the timing couldn’t be worse for a team opening the 2026 regular season against the Buffalo Bills.
Jayden Higgins, a second-year wideout and 2025 second-round pick, is out for the year after tearing his ACL during Houston’s joint practice with the Raiders this week. The injury shuts down what was supposed to be a bigger role in his second NFL season and leaves the Texans trying to patch together a group that was built to lean on his size and physicality.
Higgins entered the league as the 34th overall pick a year ago, the fourth receiver selected in that draft after a standout run at Iowa State. As a rookie, he drew 68 targets and turned them into 41 catches for 525 yards and six touchdowns in the regular season.
He also made a real imprint in the playoffs, posting 39 yards on three receptions from C.J. Stroud in the wild-card win over the Steelers and then catching six passes for 59 yards in the divisional-round loss to the Patriots.
At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, Higgins gave Houston a body type it can’t easily replicate. He played just under 58% of the Texans’ offensive snaps during the regular season and finished with 1.45 yards per route run, a solid number for a rookie but hardly a finished product. Most of his work came outside, with 81.8% of his 671 snaps coming there, which only sharpens the problem for Houston now that he’s gone.
His absence also matters because Higgins had already shown he could make a difference in big moments against Buffalo. Last November, he caught four passes for 38 yards and scored on a Davis Mills touchdown right before halftime, helping Houston take a 20-16 lead in its eventual win over the Bills.
With Higgins sidelined, veteran Xavier Hutchinson is the most likely candidate to absorb some of that workload. Another Iowa State product, Hutchinson was a sixth-round pick in 2023 and put together career-best numbers in 2025 with 35 catches for 428 yards and two touchdowns. Even so, his 1.07 yards per route run last season was notably low, and it was the first time in his NFL career he even got above 1.00 in that metric.
That leaves Houston with less proven help behind Nico Collins. The Texans’ passing game finished 25th in EPA per drop back in non-garbage time a year ago, though Stroud missed three games. Beyond Collins and Hutchinson, the other names Buffalo may see in Week 1 include 2025 third-round pick Jaylin Noel, described as a small and sudden vertical threat, plus depth options Justin Watson, Jared Wayne, and rookie sixth-rounder Lewis Bond.
Higgins was expected to give Houston a tough outside pairing with Collins in his second season. Instead, the Texans head into the opener without him, and Buffalo’s secondary suddenly has one less problem to solve.
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