The Houston Texans will enter the 2026 season without one of their top receivers.
Jayden Higgins suffered a torn ACL in Tuesday's joint practice with the Las Vegas Raiders, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported on Wednesday, per sources.
The second-year wideout will miss the 2026 season.
The No. 34 overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, Higgins caught 41 passes for 525 yards and six touchdowns as a rookie, finding himself in an elevated role following Tank Dell's season-ending injury suffered late in the 2024 campaign.
Alongside C.J. Stroud's favorite target, Nico Collins, Higgins filled an important role in Houston's passing game in 2025, catching 41 of 68 targets while also seeing his target share increase by 8.1 percentage points during Houston's nine-game winning streak to close the regular season.
With Dell still slowly making his way back to the field, Higgins was expected to play an important part in Houston's aerial attack in 2026. His late-season production -- Higgins scored four of his six touchdowns in Weeks 10-18 and produced his two highest single-game yardage totals in Weeks 13 and 17 -- was a promising indicator of how Higgins might perform from the start of the 2026 season for an offense that also welcomed running back David Montgomery into the fold in the offseason.
Higgins will instead spend the season recuperating. Houston, meanwhile, will turn to the likes of Xavier Hutchinson, Jaylin Noel and Justin Watson in an attempt to fill the void while maintaining hope Dell can contribute at some point.
