It's the silly time of the offseason, when every story is about how such and such player has lost weight, added muscle, or looks faster and more comfortable in the offense than a year ago. I saw one of those stories recently about Houston's Jayden Higgins.
I haven't seen much interest in Higgins so far in early drafts, which is fair. His quarterback's stock is low, and Higgins is one of a number of possibilities for Houston's No. 2 behind Nico Collins. The Texans also have Jaylin Noel, drafted a round later than Higgins a year ago, and Tank Dell possibly returning from injury; he's been doing some stuff at OTAs so far.
But let's keep an eye on Higgins. He was drafted just outside the first round (34th overall), and he improved over the course of his rookie season. He was playing pretty well by the end of the year, despite C.J. Stroud's late struggles.
One of the files we keep compares receivers' first half of the season versus their second half. It's a good way to track who got better, or worse, as the season wore on. Here I've removed players who were hurt or otherwise not parts of the offense for big chunks of the season. It shows improvement by wide receivers who started or had leading roles for at least 5 games in both the first nine weeks of the season, and the last nine weeks.
Higgins in the first nine weeks (eight games) caught 14 passes for 159 yards and 2 TDs. He was one of the top 3, but not a big part of the offense.
In the final nine weeks, he caught almost twice as many passes (27) for 366 yards and 4 TDs, averaging nearly 10 points per week in PPR leagues. That 86 percent improvement over the first half of the season was better than all but three other wide receivers who met the criteria (two of whom, Michael Wilson and Jalen Coker, we've talked about here in recent weeks). Table shows the 28 wide receivers who took a positive step over the second half of the year, sorted by percentage improvement.
| WIDE RECEIVERS SHOWING 2ND-HALF IMPROVEMENT | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | No | Yds | TD | PPR | Diff |
| Michael Wilson, Ari. | 9 | 60 | 809 | 6 | 19.7 | 260% |
| Jalen Coker, Car. | 8 | 29 | 349 | 3 | 10.2 | 141% |
| Pat Bryant, Den. | 6 | 22 | 272 | 0 | 8.2 | 88% |
| Jayden Higgins, Hou. | 9 | 27 | 366 | 4 | 9.7 | 86% |
| Jameson Williams, Det. | 9 | 44 | 762 | 4 | 16.1 | 73% |
| Mack Hollins, N.E. | 6 | 26 | 333 | 0 | 9.9 | 64% |
| Jauan Jennings, S.F. | 8 | 33 | 390 | 7 | 14.3 | 63% |
| Demarcus Robinson, S.F. | 8 | 14 | 168 | 1 | 4.7 | 49% |
| Chris Olave, N.O. | 7 | 45 | 603 | 6 | 20.2 | 41% |
| Dontayvion Wicks, G.B. | 8 | 17 | 198 | 2 | 6.2 | 40% |
| Jerry Jeudy, Cle. | 9 | 28 | 345 | 2 | 8.3 | 40% |
| A.J. Brown, Phi. | 8 | 49 | 608 | 4 | 16.7 | 35% |
| Jalen Nailor, Min. | 9 | 15 | 266 | 3 | 6.6 | 34% |
| Jakobi Meyers, 2tms | 8 | 39 | 442 | 3 | 12.8 | 32% |
| Alec Pierce, Ind. | 8 | 23 | 502 | 6 | 13.7 | 29% |
| Darius Slayton, NYG | 7 | 18 | 284 | 2 | 8.1 | 27% |
| Nico Collins, Hou. | 8 | 38 | 703 | 4 | 16.9 | 27% |
| Darnell Mooney, Atl. | 9 | 20 | 270 | 1 | 5.9 | 21% |
| Wan'Dale Robinson, NYG | 7 | 45 | 474 | 2 | 15.0 | 19% |
| Tee Higgins, Cin. | 6 | 27 | 365 | 5 | 15.6 | 19% |
| Zay Flowers, Balt. | 9 | 40 | 661 | 5 | 15.6 | 14% |
| Tetairoa McMillan, Car. | 8 | 29 | 456 | 5 | 13.1 | 8% |
| Stefon Diggs, N.E. | 8 | 40 | 505 | 2 | 12.8 | 7% |
| Isaiah Bond, Cle. | 8 | 7 | 194 | 0 | 3.6 | 5% |
| Andrei Iosivas, Cin. | 8 | 17 | 199 | 1 | 5.4 | 5% |
| Puka Nacua, LAR | 9 | 68 | 1004 | 7 | 23.9 | 4% |
| Tre Harris, LAC | 8 | 17 | 203 | 0 | 4.8 | 1% |
Higgins was also a factor in the two playoff games, catching 9 passes for 98 yards. Stroud was busy melting down those games, but the rookie put some good stuff on tape. Houston let Christian Kirk go and didn't add anyone notable at receiver in the offseason; would just seem to be Dell, if he's able to come back from that devastating 2024 injury, as his competition for No. 2.
Decent chance the team's best wideout after Nico is Higgins. I'm interested.
--Andy Richardson
