Houston Texans' Day Two Pick Among ESPN's Top 10 Impact Rookies

The Houston Texans could have a big year-one difference-maker in store for this season.

Mar 1, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Iowa State wideout Jayden Higgins (WO18) during the 2025 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

During this year's NFL draft, the Houston Texans made it a priority to make some major upgrades to their wide receiver room.

Following the departure of Stefon Diggs to the New England Patriots paired with Tank Dell potentially being out of the mix for the entirety of the 2025-26 season, it left a bit of a need in the Texans' wide receiver room to be addressed during the draft action last month.

With their selections of Iowa State duo Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel, they tackled those holes at wideout in a big way, and effectively gives this Texans offense a breath of fresh air heading into the 2025 season.

And in the eyes of ESPN's Field Yates, one of those new Texans receivers could be in line for a major rookie season due to a vast target share being up for grabs–– and that's second-rounder Jayden Higgins.

Within ESPN's list of top ten year-one impact players taken outside of the first round, Higgins slotted in at the number nine slot for offensive players, largely thanks to the significant early opportunity that could be on the table in Houston's unit.

"The Texans had to remake their wide receiver room this offseason, with Tank Dell's timeline to return from his knee injury still uncertain and Stefon Diggs departing for the Patriots," Yates wrote. "Higgins will join Christian Kirk and fellow draft pick Jaylin Noel in trying to fill that void. Higgins brings an excellent combination of size and speed to the position, similar to teammate Nico Collins. He showed very good discipline and body control on passes thrown his way on the sideline in college, and that should help him build chemistry with C.J. Stroud in a hurry."

Higgins does have the draft stock to warrant a considerable role in year one, as he was Houston's first selection of the class at 34th overall as a result of their trade down with the New York Giants. But not only that, he has the complementary skillset necessary for this offense, on top of being one of the more talented pass catchers in this group of incoming receivers.

During his last season at Iowa State in 2024, Higgins had 13 games played, starting in 11 of those, collecting 87 receptions for 1,183 yards, along with nine touchdowns, landing him on Second-Team All-Big 12.

As an option on the opposite end of Nico Collins, along with a nice new weapon like Christian Kirk filing in at the slot, C.J. Stroud has a compelling, yet productive group of pass catchers to work with this coming season, but if Higgins can be one to build chemistry with his quarterback early-on, look out for a major year one impact to be in store.

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