Perhaps no position within the Houston Texans’ depth chart has experienced the major swings, positive and negative, as the wide receiver group has. Two years ago, prior to C.J. Stroud’s rookie season, the Texans’ wide receiver room was largely considered among the worst in the NFL. Then came the unexpected ascensions of Nico Collins and Tank Dell in 2023, plus an offseason trade for Stefon Diggs, and lo and behold, the Texans had a top five receiver room!
Now, fast forward to today. Diggs’ entire Texans career (for now) lasted eight games before an ACL tear ended his season. Tank Dell suffered one of the most horrific knee injuries in Texans history in Week 16. After Collins, the next best wide receiver is who? John Metchie? Xavier Hutchinson? This is not a good situation.
Thus, the Texans need to go wide receiver shopping, probably in both free agency in March and in the draft in April. If we are targeting names in various value tiers, I have a few for you below. However, let’s cut one thing off at the pass — the Texans are NOT in the market for another near top of market contract like Nico Collins’ deal.
Instead, the Texans will be shopping for various forms of bargains. Here are my preferences:
Somewhat Pricy Veteran — STEFON DIGGS
Personally, I would love to bring Diggs back on a reasonable two year deal, something in the neighborhood of $25 million to $30 million total. During his time in Houston, Diggs built a reputation as a maniac worker and solid leader, plus the chemistry he built with Stroud would allow him to hit the ground running in training camp. Other names to watch in this tier would be Cooper Kupp, Deebo Samuel, Amari Cooper, and Chris Godwin.
Moderate middle tier — DEMARCUS ROBINSON
Many Texan fans out there would like to see the Texans pursue Kupp, given his history with new offensive coordinator Nick Caley, who comes over from Kupp’s current team, the Rams. For the price, if the Texans are going to bring in a former Ram, I like Robinson as a third wide receiver, more than Kupp as a second wide receiver. Robinson is heading into his 10th NFL season, and last season scored seven touchdowns on just 31 receptions, while averaging 16.3 yards per catch. Other names in this category would be Hollywood Brown, Dyami Brown, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Blue collar guy — MACK HOLLINS
Texans receivers will need to show some willingness to block in the run game, and Mack Hollins showed a ton of grit for the Bills last season, in their post-Diggs season, where the receivers kind of contributed by committee. Hollins had 31 catches for 378 yards and five touchdowns. Other names to watch in this category would be Tyler Boyd, Sterling Shepard and Robert Woods.
Drafted rookie — MATTHEW GOLDEN
Unlike last season, when we saw a couple receivers pop in the top six (Marvin Harrison, Malik Nabors), this group probably slides more into the back end of the first round. Out of that group, give me Golden, who has the ability to play any of the receiver positions, and was the most noticeable playmaker on an offense with quite a few of them at the University of Texas. Golden would be an excellent pick at the 25th overall pick. Others to consider would be Luther Burden III (Missouri) or Emeka Egbuka (Ohio State).
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