The Texans star wideout is back baby!
When the Houston Texans selected Nico Collins in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft, it was hard to find anyone who thought the heir apparent to Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins had arrived. And former head coach David Culley didn’t do much with Collins in year one to dispel that notion.
Then two key things happened: Cal McNair hired DeMeco Ryans as the new head coach and then general manager Nick Caserio drafted C.J. Stroud.
Cue the applause for Nico Collins highlights.
In his rookie season, Collins managed to gain 446 yards and score a singular touchdown over the course of 14 games.
His second season saw a small uptick, with 481 yards and two touchdowns in 10 games.
His first season with Stroud and Ryans, operating in Bobby Slowik’s offense, saw Collins productivity shoot off the charts.
In 15 games last season, Collins gained 1297 yards and scored eight touchdowns.
He was well on his way to a similar and/or even better season this year until the injury bug took a bite out of his productivity.
Right now, having played in only five games, Collins has 567 yards and three scores.
In week 11, six weeks without Collins on the field, he’s still the 24th leading receiver in the NFL. A solid performance tonight in the Jerry Dome could see him jump back into the top 15, maybe even top 10.
140 receiving yards tonight against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football would plant him ninth overall.
That’s a snapshot of how important Collins is to this Texans offense.
Per Fox Sports, Jerry’s Kids currently sit as the 26th overall ranked defense, with the 17th ranked passing D and the 31st ranked against the run.
Seems a fair bet that if Nico Collins doesn’t gash the Cowboys D, running back Joe Mixon will.
If we’re lucky, both with have their way tonight.
The X-factor in all this is just how well the Texans offensive line plays. Since Collins went down, the O-line has hovered somewhere between atrocious and abysmal. Maybe the threat of Collins toasting the back end will keep Dallas out of the box and the O-line can get in a rhythm.
Maybe.
Either way, Nico is back and the Texans should return to form tonight for all the world to see.
As for the offensive fortunes of Jerry’s kids? Fox Sports has the Texans defense ranked #3 overall, their passing D fourth and the rush D in 11th place.
Cooper Rush under 19.5 Completions (+100 MGM)
Rush is under this line in 5/7 games as a starter in his career.
Rush gets a matchup versus the Texans that have an ELITE pass defense, allowing the LEAST completions and 3rd least passing yards to opposing QBs. In 10 games this… pic.twitter.com/xeS4d2HM1o
— Matt Locks (@MattL0cks) November 18, 2024
Sure sounds like Danielle Hunter, Calen Bullock and the rest of the Texans defense will provide Collins, Stroud and Mixon with lots of opportunities to gobble up yardage and score points.
Kickoff tonight at 7:15pm CST – don’t miss it!