The Houston Texans have taken a bit of a bold, yet smart strategy on the second day of the NFL Draft. After trading out of the first round, the Texans kicked off their Day 2 journey by selecting Iowa State wide receiver Jayden Higgins. It’s a solid pickup for them, seeing as how Higgins has a similar type of game as Nico Collins, who is now his new teammate.
Now, you would think that the Texans may go in a different direction in the third round. Nope. Instead, they decided to not only draft another receiver, but they drafted Higgins’ college teammate Jaylin Noel to reunite them down in Houston.
C.J. Stroud gets two new Iowa State weapons
Noel is coming off a career year at Iowa State with 1,194 yards and 8 touchdowns off of 80 catches. He averaged over 85 yards per game and averaged 15 yards per reception. He was a stud in college last season. As for Higgins, he had similar stats as Noel with 1,183 yards and 9 touchdowns off of 87 catches. He averaged over 90 yards per game while averaging 13 yards per catch.
Jayden Higgins in the second round.
— NFL (@NFL) April 26, 2025
Jaylin Noel in the third round.
A pair of @CycloneFB WRs are headed to the @HoustonTexans. #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/plgcFcDUQd
Higgins and Noel now get to go down to Houston and join forces with C.J. Stroud, who is need of some weapons outside of Nico Collins. Stefon Diggs is with New England, and Tank Dell is set to miss the 2025 season. The Texans have just given Stroud two young weapons who were arguably the best wide receiver duo in college football.
Houston took a weird step back in 2024 and while they still have some holes to fill on their roster, getting both Noel and Higgins boosts up the passing attack. Now if Houston can just get some protection, the Texans could become a serious threat in 2025.