The way Houston's offense in general and C.J. Stroud specifically imploded late last year, there's not a lot of excitement for their skill players. But it's a new year, with the potential for someone to outperform where he'll be selected. Like Jayden Higgins.
The known commodities are Nico Collins, Dalton Schultz and David Montgomery. Those are the top wideout, tight end and running back. To fine the 2nd-best wideout, who may or may have value in fantasy leagues, you're sifting through a pair of second-year wide receivers (Higgins and Jaylin Noel, both drafted a year ago in the second and third rounds) and Tank Dell, who's trying to come back from a knee injury suffered nearly two years ago at this point.
Looking into Higgins a year ago, I have some interest. He's built like Collins, and while his rookie numbers were modest, he stepped up the second half of the year, when he got his chance.
Here's Higgins the first nine weeks of last season (eight games). Just 14 catches and 2 TDs, not much happening.
| HIGGINS GAME LOG, FIRST HALF | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Tgt | Rec | Yds | RecTD |
| at LAR | 3 | 2 | 32 | 0 |
| T.B. | 1 | 1 | 28 | 0 |
| at Jac. | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Ten. | 1 | 1 | 24 | 1 |
| at Bal. | 4 | 4 | 32 | 0 |
| at Sea. | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| S.F. | 8 | 4 | 34 | 1 |
| Den. | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
But he played more and did more the second half of the season. In those nine games he caught nearly twice as many passes (27) and twice as many touchdowns (4).
| HIGGINS GAME LOG, SECOND HALF | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Tgt | Rec | Yds | RecTD |
| Jac. | 7 | 5 | 42 | 1 |
| at Ten. | 7 | 4 | 55 | 0 |
| Buf. | 9 | 4 | 38 | 1 |
| at Ind. | 5 | 5 | 65 | 0 |
| at K.C. | 5 | 3 | 34 | 0 |
| Ari. | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| L.V. | 3 | 1 | 17 | 0 |
| at LAC | 4 | 2 | 88 | 1 |
| Ind. | 5 | 2 | 23 | 1 |
Granted, 3 catches per game is still not much. But he kept it going in two playoff games, catching 9 for 98 in those contests (even with Stroud struggling mightily).
I tend to be injury cautious, so I'm a ways from drafting Dell. And while I've heard some positive things about Noel of late, he mostly played special teams as a rookie, so I'm not about to consider him ahead of Higgins.
We'll see, but Higgins is a guy I have some interest in as a late-round flier.
--Andy Richardson
