The Houston Texans had to navigate their Week 8 win over the San Francisco 49ers without their best wide receiver, Nico Collins.
Collins suffered a concussion in Week 7 that forced him to sit out on Sunday. Shockingly, the Texans got along just fine without him en route to a win.
However, we know the Texans overcoming the absence of their best playmaker in the passing game isn’t sustainable, so Houston needs him back sooner rather than later.
Thankfully, it looks like it’ll be sooner.
According to Aaron Wilson of Click2Houston.com on Monday, Collins is “doing well and trending toward returning at this point.”
“We’ll see how he progresses this week,” head coach DeMeco Ryans said of Collins when asked about his status for Week 9.
The Texans had one of their most complete game of the entire 2025 campaign on Sunday in the 26-15 win over the 49ers. The offense played well and the defense stifled quarterback Mac Jones and Co.
The former development was particularly surprising given Collins’ absence and a lack of production from tight end Dalton Schultz.
But the Texans saw major contributions from Xavier Hutchinson, Jaylin Noel, Jayden Higgins and Woody Marks to help overcome that.
Most surprisingly, the Texans’ offensive line, which ranked 30th in both run- and pass-block win rate entering Week 8, didn’t give up a single sack.
Hopefully that is a sign of things to come for Houston, a team that desperately needs to keep stringing wins together with a 3-4 record.
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