The Houston Texans just got some of the worst news of their entire training camp.
Second-year wide receiver Jayden Higgins tore his ACL during Tuesday’s joint practice with the Las Vegas Raiders and will miss the entire 2026 season. The injury happened on a routine route in the end zone during 11-on-11 drills. Higgins hit the ground awkwardly, popped up, and limped off the field under his own power. The MRI on Wednesday confirmed the worst-case scenario.
Higgins is only 23. The Texans took him No. 34 overall in the 2025 draft and immediately built him into the offense. He caught 41 passes for 525 yards and six touchdowns as a rookie, started 10 of the 17 games he played, and was expected to take a leap this year with Nico Collins healthy alongside him and Tank Dell still working his way back.
Now the Texans have to rebuild their receiver room on the fly, three weeks before Week 1.
The blow is layered. Higgins was projected to be the second option in the passing game behind Collins. Dell is still on a slow ramp back from his own major injury from 2024 and cannot be counted on for a full season yet. Xavier Hutchinson and Jaylin Noel are more third and fourth options than second options. The Texans are suddenly one Collins injury away from having no proven receivers at all.
C.J. Stroud built his career on quick timing throws to a stable of receivers he could trust. That trust takes reps to develop, and losing a starter three weeks before Week 1 means Stroud will be playing catch-up in September. The Texans might have to lean heavier on Joe Mixon in the run game to protect the passing offense while it sorts itself out.
General manager Nick Caserio is going to have to make a move. There are veteran receivers available, from Odell Beckham Jr. to what remains of the free agent market. There might also be a trade market as teams start cutting to 53. Houston will not sit idle.
Higgins was a legitimate ascending player. Iowa State scouts had him as one of the most polished route runners in his class, and he flashed all of that during his rookie year. Watching a rising second-year receiver go down like this is the kind of thing that changes a franchise’s short-term plans in an afternoon.
The bigger question is what this does to the AFC South race. Houston was the projected division winner for the third straight year. Indianapolis just signed Keenan Allen. Jacksonville is trending up. The Titans are still bad but improving. The Texans losing Higgins closes the gap in the division a little bit and puts more pressure on the defense to carry weeks where the offense is short-handed.
Higgins will get his medical procedure this week and start the long rehab process. He is young enough that he should return to full form for 2027, but ACL recoveries are long and unpredictable. Some receivers come back looking like themselves within a year. Others take two seasons to fully trust the knee again.
Football is brutal. One awkward step and a rising rookie’s second season is over before it started. The Texans just got a hard lesson in how thin any depth chart can look in August.
Get well soon, Jayden.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
