Receivers coming and going in the AFC South. Colts sign Keenan Allen, while the Texans lose Jayden Higgins to a season-ending knee injury.
While neither development is quite what we would call a needle mover, both change the landscape of the passing attacks on those teams – affecting the late rounds of fantasy drafts.
An early second-round pick a year ago, Higgins was going to be Houston’s 2nd-leading receiver. And in the event Nico Collins got hurt, Higgins would have been their lead guy in those games. But Higgins tore his ACL in a joint practice session with the Raiders yesterday.
With Higgins shelved, guys like Tank Dell and Jaylin Noel start to look like late-round possibilities. Dell missed all of last year after a friendly fire injury at Arrowhead in December of 2024, but he was phenomenal as a rookie, catching 25 passes and 5 TDs in his last four full games. Dell is tiny (listed at 165 pounds) but let’s get eyes on him.
And let’s see where Noel fits in. He had some decent moments as a rookie, catching 9 passes for 140 yards when Christian Kirk missed the Seattle and San Francisco games. Kirk isn’t around anymore, so I think it’s going to be either Noel, Dell or Xavier Hutchinson that’s Houston’s 2nd-most productive wide receiver. If we’re picking today, it would be Noel I’d be selecting (albeit in the last round).
A shoutout is also in order for Dalton Schultz. While he’s a forgettable tight end, he led that team with 82 catches last year. With the wide receiver group lessened, I’m thinking he can be penciled in for plenty of games with 4-5 catches.
In the same division, Indianapolis has added Keenan Allen. That brings back bad memories for me, being one of the suckers who invested in Ladd McConkey last year. McConkey had a great rookie season but fizzled as a sophomore, in part because Allen showed up and started catching balls. With that fresh in my mind, I am less excited today about the possibility of throwing a pick at Josh Downs, who’s kind of the McConkey-type prospect in that offense.
The Allen signing can also be viewed as a hedge against the health of Alec Pierce, who’s spent the entire offseason trying to get his knee right. (He damaged it, apparently, carrying those big sacks of money to the bank.) They’re completely different styles of receivers, of course – Pierce was arguably the league’s best deep threat last year, while Allen is a short-range guy nowadays – but signing could signal that the team felt it needed to add a body.
Allen is right at the end of the road. I’m pretty sure he’ll be the league’s slowest rostered wide receiver on opening day. But he’s still a savvy vet, with a big body and sticky hands. He caught 81 passes last year, and he caught 70 in 15 games the previous year for a struggling Bears team. So I guess a possibility in the late rounds of a PPR league.
My own personal tendency is to give up a little bit too early on these kind of players. In a typical season, we’ll see decent stats out of a past-his-prime wide receiver. In the last 15 years, 22 wide receivers who were at least 33 years old finished with top-40 numbers (using PPR scoring). It happens.
For the 2026 season, we’ve got not only Allen but Davante Adams and Stefon Diggs as possibilities. (Adams will be the first of the three chosen, and I like Diggs a lot more than Allen.)
| OLD RECEIVERS WITH TOP-40 NUMBERS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Age | G | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2017 | Larry Fitzgerald, Ari. | 34 | 16 | 109 | 1156 | 10.6 | 6 | 263.7 | 5 |
| 2019 | Julian Edelman, N.E. | 33 | 16 | 100 | 1117 | 11.2 | 6 | 258.8 | 7 |
| 2012 | Reggie Wayne, Ind. | 34 | 16 | 106 | 1355 | 12.8 | 5 | 271.0 | 8 |
| 2025 | • Davante Adams, LAR | 33 | 14 | 60 | 789 | 13.2 | 14 | 222.9 | 9 |
| 2016 | Larry Fitzgerald, Ari. | 33 | 16 | 107 | 1023 | 9.6 | 6 | 245.8 | 11 |
| 2013 | Anquan Boldin, S.F. | 33 | 16 | 85 | 1179 | 13.9 | 7 | 246.0 | 15 |
| 2023 | Adam Thielen, Car. | 33 | 17 | 103 | 1014 | 9.8 | 4 | 231.0 | 17 |
| 2014 | Steve Smith, Balt. | 35 | 16 | 79 | 1065 | 13.5 | 6 | 221.5 | 18 |
| 2014 | Anquan Boldin, S.F. | 34 | 16 | 83 | 1062 | 12.8 | 5 | 219.6 | 19 |
| 2012 | Steve Smith, Car. | 33 | 16 | 73 | 1174 | 16.1 | 4 | 217.1 | 20 |
| 2014 | Roddy White, Atl. | 33 | 14 | 80 | 921 | 11.5 | 7 | 214.1 | 21 |
| 2011 | Reggie Wayne, Ind. | 33 | 16 | 75 | 960 | 12.8 | 4 | 195.0 | 25 |
| 2018 | Larry Fitzgerald, Ari. | 35 | 16 | 69 | 734 | 10.6 | 6 | 186.0 | 26 |
| 2014 | Andre Johnson, Hou. | 33 | 15 | 85 | 936 | 11.0 | 3 | 196.6 | 28 |
| 2025 | Keenan Allen, LAC | 33 | 17 | 81 | 777 | 9.6 | 4 | 182.7 | 29 |
| 2019 | Larry Fitzgerald, Ari. | 36 | 16 | 75 | 804 | 10.7 | 4 | 179.4 | 35 |
| 2013 | Steve Smith, Car. | 34 | 15 | 64 | 745 | 11.6 | 4 | 162.5 | 37 |
| 2016 | Steve Smith, Balt. | 37 | 14 | 70 | 799 | 11.4 | 5 | 183.9 | 37 |
| 2018 | Jordy Nelson, Oak. | 33 | 15 | 63 | 739 | 11.7 | 3 | 156.7 | 38 |
| 2014 | Malcom Floyd, S.D. | 33 | 16 | 52 | 856 | 16.5 | 6 | 173.6 | 40 |
| 2011 | Plaxico Burress, NYJ | 34 | 16 | 45 | 612 | 13.6 | 8 | 154.2 | 40 |
| 2015 | Anquan Boldin, S.F. | 35 | 14 | 69 | 789 | 11.4 | 4 | 171.9 | 40 |
—Ian Allan
