Collins Absence Hurt: Texans Need WR’s Return to…
Houston Texans stud wide receiver Nico Collins has missed the last five games due to a hamstring injury, but he seems poised to return to the lineup in Week 11, and with the Texans playing on Monday Night Football, this gives Collins one extra day to rest.
Collins broke out in 2023, finishing with 1,297 yards, and he inked an extension with Houston last offseason. Across the first five games of 2024, Collins managed to rack up 32 receptions for 567 yards and three touchdowns. He was averaging an eye-popping 113.4 yards per game.
CJ Stroud has a passer rating of 126.4 when throwing to Collins in 2024, and his absence was obviously a huge blow for Houston. They went 4-1 across their first five games with Collins in and have since gone 2-3 without him in the lineup.
Across the first five games, Texans QB CJ Stroud had a passer rating of 98.2 with seven touchdowns against three interceptions, and in the previous five games without Nico Collins, his passer rating dropped down to 78.5 with five touchdowns against three interceptions.
The Texans are still in first place in the AFC South and are almost guaranteed to win that division for the second year in a row, but it’s extremely evident that if they hope to save their season and make a run, they need Nico Collins back in the lineup.
If Collins kept up his 113.4 yards per game performance and played every remaining game, he’d still finish with 1,361 yards in 2024. The connection between CJ Stroud and Nico Collins is flat-out insane, and his likely return could get the Texans back on the right track.
