- 1 day ago
ITL reacts to the breaking news that Jayden Higgins suffered a torn ACL during the Texans-Raiders joint practice and discusses how Houston moves forward without one of its key young receivers.
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00:0295.7 The Fan Breaking News
00:06Per Ian Rappaport, sources, Texans wide receiver Jaden Higgins suffered a torn ACL yesterday during the joint practice against the
00:14Raiders.
00:15Clearly, it's a tough blow to the Houston Texans. You're in the loop here on 95.7 The Fan.
00:21That is the news that is coming down at this moment. I mean, honestly, eight minutes ago, we get this
00:25news that Jaden Higgins seems to be, he's lost.
00:28He's lost for the season, essentially, right? In any way, effectively, I can't imagine. I know that medical marvels are
00:35happening with guys returning.
00:36Six months minimum.
00:37But yeah, there's no way that you get him back this season. And honestly, just the fact that you lose
00:42him for whatever portion of the season, obviously, it's going to be damn near all of it.
00:47It's going to be all of it, let's be honest.
00:48It's going to be all of it.
00:50That hurts, especially for Jaden Higgins that it feels like was turning a corner this year.
00:55I mean, damn. You know, first things first. You know, just how it hits you. Damn. I want to say
01:01something stronger than that.
01:02I mean, it's not only, it's not just, and we'll get to it, you know, how does this affect the
01:08Texans?
01:09We are absolutely going to talk about that. But this dude was coming into his own, flat out.
01:16I mean, you know, he was the story the first couple of days of practice, this training camp, and every
01:24day since.
01:26I mean, every single day. It was Jaden Higgins.
01:30And he gave you the confidence of what this offense can do, what the receivers can do for, you know,
01:36for C.J. Stroud and everybody.
01:39I mean, Nick Caley and all that.
01:41But really about him, you know, going into this year, his second year, you could just flat out see the
01:46development,
01:47and you could just imagine the possibilities.
01:49Now let's get to, you know, how it affects the Texans.
01:53Jaden Higgins out for the year, more than likely.
01:56Jalen Noel, who knows?
01:58Hopefully it's just one of those things that you can come back from, but it is a hand.
02:03Tank Dell, definitely who knows.
02:06So you got a rookie sixth rounder in Lewis Bond, and you have Xavier Hutchinson and Justin Watson.
02:12Yeah.
02:13In essence.
02:14Jared Wayne.
02:15Jared Wayne, who's shown well, but yeah, the thing that none of them, well, I guess let's ask this as
02:21a question,
02:21because I want this to still come back to Jaden Higgins, because he looked like he was coming on.
02:27What particularly about his game do you feel like was going to be the biggest impact for the Texans?
02:31Because I think that's how you go about, in my mind, or maybe this is not the right way to
02:35go about it,
02:36but I imagine that's how you go about, well, then how do we replace or how do we make up
02:39that thing that is missing
02:41that he is no longer going to be able to give you?
02:43I think that the term chunk plays that is often used a lot wasn't just going to be Nico Collins.
02:49I think his size and his ability to make those types of plays gave this offense, and C.J. Stroud,
02:57you know, just a world of possibilities.
02:58You know, you'd like to think Tank Dell, but we just talked about that.
03:01That is still something of an unknown.
03:03I think just development in general, being able to sort of keep the defense honest in terms of,
03:11you know, now if I'm facing the Houston Texans, that safety is over there on Nico Collins' side,
03:16and that's it.
03:17You know, we'll worry about the rest later.
03:19You know?
03:20Yeah, I think the things that I wrote down, you mentioned it, right?
03:23The opportunity for explosive plays, but really just, I think,
03:25I keep coming back to one of the first times that Nico spoke this fall, right?
03:31And for training camp, he was talking about just how fast Jaden Higgins was,
03:35and it's one of the things that I've kind of, I was really happy to see from him,
03:40is if somebody didn't get their hands on him, it felt like he was just going to get to where
03:42he needed to go.
03:43He was separating really well and just running great routes,
03:46and I feel like that speed paired with his ability to kind of get to his spots really well was
03:53so important.
03:54And so with that, clearly you're going to miss that,
03:56because I don't know that you have anybody, especially not healthy right now that you go,
03:59definitively does that, but before you even start talking about outside the building,
04:03where inside the building can you try and replicate any of those?
04:06Because that's, I mean, it sucks.
04:08You want to stop and mourn and lament the fact that he is not going to be with this team
04:12to start with,
04:12just for himself, a dude who was still early on in this
04:15and looked like he was about to take a little level of a star turn of sorts,
04:18at least locally, if not in a national perspective.
04:21Because it did seem like smart national people were like,
04:23hey, there's Jaden Higgins.
04:24It looks like it could be a thing.
04:26But also, just as a team, you can't afford to stop and think about that.
04:29Like, you still have three weeks till, about three weeks till you get to going and playing real-life football,
04:34and you've got to start answering those questions.
04:36How do you maybe get to some of that explosive?
04:39Like, is there anywhere on the roster right now that you go,
04:41we can get to some of this explosive,
04:43so we can get to some of these chunk plays that we were hoping to see from Jaden Higgins?
04:46I would lean more Jared Wayne than Xavier Hutchinson.
04:48I don't know about you guys.
04:50Simply because he is that big body.
04:52I know Xavier Hutchinson's not small,
04:53but I mean, he is that big body that has kind of filled that role,
04:56at least in the practices and scrimmages and joint practice that we've seen.
05:01I would lean him.
05:03But again, Jared Wayne has some serious questions in terms of what he's been able to do.
05:06I think the Xavier Hutchinson thing,
05:08and we talked about this a little bit yesterday,
05:09you kind of figured that's what he was,
05:12and he is a certain particular type of receiver
05:14that you wonder if the ceiling has already been sort of reached.
05:18So, I mean, it's not comforting,
05:21but I would lean more Jared Wayne at this point.
05:24Yeah, that does not excite me.
05:26No.
05:27I feel bad because every time Jared Wayne comes up,
05:29I've kind of poo-pooed it in my brain.
05:32I kind of know what he is.
05:33This might be just my priors,
05:35me not being willing to lego my priors,
05:37but I recognize that he's been a practice squad guy.
05:39And so, the step up that he's made to me,
05:42and maybe I'm just being unfair with like,
05:43hey, you have to go through these steps,
05:44and sometimes you just blow by those.
05:46I don't know that he's been so good that I go,
05:48yeah, he's starter caliber now.
05:49I think that he's a guy that,
05:50all right, I'm willing to have within the room
05:52and a guy that can kind of filter in.
05:54I think if we're talking about steps up,
05:55it's probably a little bit more reasonable in my mind to go,
05:58Xavier Hutchinson was a guy that you trusted to be a part of this.
06:00And he's had a good camp, and he's made a step up.
06:03Unfortunately, like obviously the step up that you were hoping for
06:05was one from a Higgins where he was like a part of your offense
06:10to being a super impact.
06:12I think Xavier Hutchinson is probably closer to being the level of impact.
06:15I just don't know if that feels sufficient enough for what you're doing.
06:19Right, that's where I am.
06:20And it's no criticism of Xavier Hutchinson.
06:24I just kind of feel like he had a good joint practice,
06:28and he's had a couple of moments here and there.
06:30But I don't know if Xavier Hutchinson puts that kind of a threat on a defense.
06:35You know what really upsets me?
06:36The answer to the question that I threw out,
06:39the idea of like how do you get to that explosiveness
06:41that clearly you're going to lose from Jaden Higgins not being there.
06:44You have a few guys that could be the answer, but they're injured.
06:47Tank Dell feels like a really easy answer for him.
06:50He ends up in that place,
06:51but he's just not been far along for you to say that
06:53with any level of confidence he will replicate
06:55what you were expecting from Jaden Higgins this year.
06:58Brevin Jordan is another one of those guys,
07:00if you're thinking outside the box,
07:01like, oh, this is a guy that especially can line up a little bit more outside
07:04and have a level of explosion and that kind of bigger body type.
07:10We've not seen him for a little bit due to injury.
07:13I'm immediately coming to the guy who's probably most available
07:16that feels like he might be able to give you some level of explosion
07:18that's Marlon Klein, and he's still pretty raw
07:20just picking up the tight end portion of this.
07:22Talk less of trying to kind of fit him into doing more different other type of stuff.
07:26It's just a slippery slope, a term that I hate,
07:29but it really is when you start relying on a rookie anything,
07:32even if you want to say, hey, Louis Barnes looked good.
07:34No, man.
07:35You can't just rely on that.
07:38God help me.
07:40That's the one thing I thought about.
07:42I'm like, man, because we – I mean, he was having a really good camp.
07:46And, you know, I think me and Lopez was kind of iffy about the receiver room
07:51from the beginning, but he was having a good camp where I'm like, okay,
07:55maybe we might be good.
07:56That's why I was like, well, damn.
07:58But now it's like, man, like I can't – you know, to me,
08:01I know their thing is next man up.
08:04I'm just – it's hard for me to get down with the next man up on here.
08:08I don't know who's going to take his spot or who I feel – I mean,
08:12I don't know if it's somebody I feel comfortable with right at this moment.
08:15Right.
08:16Even running back, offensive line, tight end,
08:20you could afford an injury more than you could at wide receiver.
08:23That's the thing that really gets me.
08:26And running back, I've had my doubts about running back,
08:29but I feel pretty good about some of the things we've seen there.
08:30With the receiver position, you got a lot of question marks.
08:34Yeah.
08:34Because, I mean, they are there right now, but you got some question marks.
08:38Right.
08:38Like, we don't know what the hell Tank – if he even going to play.
08:41Mm-hmm.
08:41Yeah.
08:42He's got a couple question marks.
08:43And I do wonder if this then puts them in a place to be even more hopeful on Tank
08:46because now it's less of, oh, this – what is the upside and more of,
08:50damn, I kind of need somebody that gives that.
08:53Mm-hmm.
08:53Well, obviously, there's more.
08:54We're going to have to talk about this a lot.
08:55I imagine you're going to be hearing about this all day here on 95.7 The Fan
08:59if you're just tuning in.
09:00Wide receiver two for the Houston Texans, Jaden Higgins.
09:04It seems like the injury that he sustained yesterday at joint practice
09:07versus the Raiders was indeed an ACL injury.
09:10And no timetable was set, at least reported.
09:13But I think if you just use your logic, you know, you go six months,
09:16seven months into the future and you're dealing with a season that's over with.
09:19Right.
09:20Mm-hmm.
09:21There are free agents out there.
09:23That was the thing that I needed to come to.
09:24Yeah.
09:25Is there anyone – because there's a couple of guys,
09:26especially when you think of this offense in particular
09:29and how it's a little difficult for wide receivers that are not attuned to it.
09:33There's a couple of wide receivers that have some level of familiarity
09:35with a Patriots-type offense that also have familiarity with Houston.
09:39Are those the places that you start looking?
09:41How viable do you think the likes of maybe a DeAndre Hopkins or Brandon Cooks
09:45as wide receivers and free agents are?
09:47I think those are definitely two possibilities.
09:50You know, DeAndre Hopkins, 34 years old.
09:53Brandon Cooks – how old is Brandon Cooks?
09:5532.
09:5632.
09:57But nevertheless, at this point, would you trust them more than what you have right now?
10:01My answer would be yes.
10:03Behind Nico, obviously.
10:05Yeah.
10:05Yeah, it's interesting because DeAndre Hopkins, I think I'd be interested in that
10:09because he does still have some of that big playability.
10:12I wonder – both of these guys, the thing I wonder about is like,
10:15can you do it at the scale that you were hoping for?
10:17Does this end up being a – I imagine it has to be a level of –
10:21you can't just replace one of these dudes as Xavier Hutchison.
10:24Or sorry, Xavier Hutchison, goodness gracious, as Jayden Higgins.
10:27I think you bring – I think you have the possibility of bringing one of them in
10:31and pairing them with hopefully asking a little bit more of the likes of Dalton Schultz,
10:36a little bit more of Xavier Hutchison, a little bit more of Justin Watson
10:40or whoever else that you're putting in here, Jerry Wayne, whatever.
10:43Obviously, one of the things that we're not talking a lot about,
10:46but how much more does this raise the profile of Jaylen Knoll when he returns of
10:50you're not necessarily – maybe you'll be working out of the slot,
10:53but you might have more expectation of you out of the slot
10:55because the other guy next to you might not be as good as Jayden Higgins.
10:59I think all of them, to be honest.
11:01I mean, I just said I don't want to count on a rookie,
11:05but you can cross your fingers and hope that Louis Bond,
11:07who they've used at that stretch-type receiver, somehow figures things out.
11:13But they're in a pickle.
11:16They're in a pickle.
11:17Yeah, and like you said, I know you read off some wide receiver names.
11:21You don't want to bring somebody in that would be a Robert Woods
11:25or something like that.
11:26I think you need a little more than that.
11:28But at this point, I think it'll be very interesting to see
11:31what they do in the next couple of days.
11:33Specifically, preseason games gets really very interesting
11:36to get our first looks at what their thoughts are.
11:39Because I imagine – remember, if your health that you're playing was the edict,
11:42I imagine that we're going to get out here and see a little bit more
11:45of what their initial thoughts are on how you try and navigate this.
11:48Or is there anything within you that thinks that this pulls them back,
11:51makes them think better of the idea of if you're healthy, you're playing?
11:54Well, I think that's one of those things where that's not going to change
11:59your philosophy for the preseason game.
12:01I think you might even play more of these wide receivers in this
12:04because the Raiders are going to play their guys as well.
12:06The other thing that we haven't even touched on,
12:09and we'll get into this as we move along,
12:11this directly affects the run game that you're leaning on so heavily.
12:15I mean, this is going to severely hinder the run game
12:18because of what defenses can now do.
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