The Houston Texans' preseason took a painful turn this week: wide receiver Jayden Higgins tore his ACL and will miss the entire 2026 season, sources told ESPN. The injury happened on Tuesday during a joint practice with the Las Vegas Raiders, when Higgins ran a route in the end zone during red-zone 11-on-11 drills and fell awkwardly. He walked off the field under his own power, and coach DeMeco Ryans said afterward only that the team was evaluating the severity; imaging confirmed the tear.
A breakout cut short
Higgins, 23, was one of the quiet success stories of Houston's 2025 season. Drafted 34th overall out of Iowa State, the 6-foot-4 receiver started 10 games as a rookie and caught 41 passes for 525 yards and six touchdowns, tying Pro Bowler Nico Collins for the team lead in touchdown receptions. His size made him quarterback C.J. Stroud's preferred target near the goal line, and his role had grown steadily through the second half of the season; internally and externally, he was pegged for a second-year leap.
Instead he joins the long list of players lost to August. The tear compounds a rough camp for Houston's offense, which had already lost backup quarterback Graham Mertz to an ACL injury days earlier.
What Houston does now
The Texans' receiving room still starts with Collins, one of the league's best when healthy, who will now absorb even more coverage attention. Behind him, the depth chart gets thin and complicated. Xavier Hutchinson, a fourth-year pro who posted career highs with 35 catches for 428 yards last season, is the likeliest candidate for an expanded role, while Tank Dell and second-year slot receiver Jaylin Noel have both been managing their own injuries through camp. Tight end Dalton Schultz figures to see more red-zone work, the area where Higgins's absence will bite hardest.
The front office faces a familiar late-August calculus: the trade and free-agent markets still hold veteran receivers, but Houston must weigh the cost against the cap flexibility that cheap, homegrown production like Higgins's was supposed to provide.
The stakes for Stroud's team
Houston enters 2026 with expectations set by last season's No. 2 seed in the AFC and a locker-room belief that its window is open now. Stroud has established himself among the league's best young quarterbacks, but his supporting cast is the variable: the offensive line was rebuilt over the offseason, and the receiver depth behind Collins was the roster's most obvious fragility even before Tuesday.
For Higgins, the timeline is the standard, unforgiving ACL arithmetic: surgery, nine to twelve months of rehabilitation, and a return targeted at the 2027 offseason program. Modern recoveries are more reliable than they have ever been, and at 23 he has time on his side. That will be little comfort in a season he was supposed to spend proving that his rookie year was the floor, not the ceiling.
