Patriots-Texans Trade Grades: Kayshon Boutte Gives C.J. Stroud a New Deep Threat After Jayden Higgins’s Injury

The Texans have their Jayden Higgins replacement.

As first reported by NFL insider Tom Pelissero, the Patriots are trading wide receiver Kayshon Boutte to Houston in exchange for safety Jaylen Reed and a 2028 seventh-round pick.

Boutte, 24, was selected by New England in the sixth round of the 2023 draft and spent his first four NFL seasons in Foxborough. His best statistical campaign came in 2024, when he hauled in 43 receptions for 589 yards and three touchdowns, and last year, he developed into Drake Maye’s favorite deep-ball target. Boutte averaged a whopping 16.7 yards per catch in 2025 and scored six touchdowns on the way to the Patriots’ appearance in Super Bowl LX.

Reed was a sixth-round pick by Houston out of Penn State in the 2025 draft. He started the year on the physically unable to perform list with a knee injury, and played in just seven games before breaking a metal plate in his forearm and being placed on season-ending injured reserve. Reed finished his rookie campaign with 14 total tackles and a fumble recovery.

Here’s a look at Monday’s trade from both clubs’ perspectives—with a grade for each side.

Texans bolster wide receiver room after Jayden Higgins’s season-ending injury

The Texans’ wide receiver room was hit with a brutal blow last week when Higgins was placed on injured reserve after tearing his ACL during a joint practice with the Raiders. As Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer wrote in his notes from training camp in Houston earlier this month, the 24-year-old had “taken a major step forward,” heading into 2026. Instead, his second professional season has ended before it began.

Lucky for Houston, the Patriots have a surplus of talent in their wide receiver room and were willing to part with Boutte—inherently making their own roster decisions easier.

Boutte is an experienced player who has matured significantly since his younger days in the league. He’ll serve as a complement to Nico Collins—a two-time Pro Bowler and quarterback C.J. Stroud’s favorite target over the past three seasons—as well as Jaylin Noel, Tank Dell and Xavier Hutchinson.

The best part? The Texans only had to give up a depth piece from their loaded secondary and a late-round pick in 2028 to acquire him.

Grade: A-

Patriots solve their roster problem, but don’t get much in return

Patriots WRs — The Patriots have a loaded wide receiver room. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Patriots’ current wide receiver rotation is a tough one to crack. Behind offseason acquisitions A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs, New England’s room consists of DeMario Douglas, Mack Hollins, Efton Chism III and Kyle Williams—among a handful of other bottom-of-the-roster pass catchers. It’s part of the reason why Boutte, “seeing the direction the … room was headed,” reportedly requested a trade out of New England earlier this spring.

Needless to say, the Patriots were going to have a tough decision to make this coming Sunday when trimming their team down to the league-mandated 53 players. Release a second-year talent like Chism or Williams amid an up-and-down summer? Keep a disgruntled Boutte in a crowded, seven-man wide receiver room? Or find a way to move him and get something in return?

They ultimately chose the third option.

That said, what New England got back in the trade is less than ideal. As Breer reported in mid-May, the club was looking for a fifth- or a sixth-round pick in exchange for Boutte’s services. Instead, it got a seventh-rounder—in 2028, no less—and a depth piece for a safety room already led by Kevin Byard III and Craig Woodson, with Dell Pettus and John Saunders Jr. in the mix for the third spot.

Grade: C

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