{"id":37412,"date":"2025-05-09T21:48:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T21:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/37412\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T21:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T21:48:16","slug":"texans-second-round-wr-jayden-higgins-reach-fully-guaranteed-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/37412\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans, Second-Round WR Jayden Higgins Reach Fully Guaranteed Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a move that will force the hands of at least one other team, the Texans will make draft history. Houston is fully guaranteeing Jayden Higgins<\/a>\u2018 second-round contract, NFL.com\u2019s Ian Rapoport reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first part of the Texans\u2019 all-Iowa State receiver mission on Day 2<\/a> will bring an important distinction into the NFL. Higgins will become the first second-round pick to see his contract fully guaranteed.<\/p>\n

The Texans have been known to provide friendly guarantee structures to<\/a> their second-round picks, thus moving the NFL forward on this front, and their move for a player chosen 34th overall effectively boxes the Browns in while likely complicating negotiations for teams that made mid-30s selections in last month\u2019s draft. The Texans added Higgins after trading down from No. 25 (via the Giants<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Cleveland chose Carson Schwesinger<\/a> at No. 33<\/a>; Houston\u2019s decision will lead to the former UCLA linebacker\u2019s camp mandating a fully guaranteed contract. Higgins\u2019 will be worth $11.7MM over four years. This draft slot brought a near-full guarantee in 2024, with $9.19MM of Ladd McConkey<\/a>\u2018s $9.99MM rookie deal locked in at signing. Even last year\u2019s No. 33 overall choice (Bills wideout Keon Coleman<\/a>) did not quite secure fully guaranteed terms, but second-rounders have been making inroads on this front for years.<\/p>\n

It took until the 2022 draft for all first-round contracts to become guaranteed, so it makes sense the NFL has seen its second-rounders land locked-in deals. The league has come a long way in terms of guaranteed percentage for second-rounders. When the rookie scale debuted in 2011, that year\u2019s No. 33 overall pick (the Patriots\u2019 Ras-I Dowling<\/a>) saw just $2.36MM of his $5.3MM rookie contract guaranteed. It will be interesting to see if the Seahawks (Nick Emmanwori<\/a>) and Browns (Quinshon Judkins<\/a>) move the full guarantee line beyond No. 34 this year.<\/p>\n

Higgins and third-rounder Jaylin Noel<\/a>, who also signed his rookie contract (per KPRC2\u2019s Aaron Wilson<\/a>), will become the rare college receiver duo to each join the same NFL team in a draft. The Cyclones relied on their Jayden-Jaylin tandem last season, and after the Texans could not swing a trade-up to reunite<\/a> C.J. Stroud<\/a> and Emeka Egbuka<\/a> in Round 1, they focused on the Big 12 program\u2019s passing attack the following night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The No. 46 player on Daniel Jeremiah\u2019s NFL.com big board, Higgins broke through for 87 receptions, 1,183 yards and nine touchdowns last season. Standing 6-foot-4 and 214 pounds, Higgins will complement Noel\u2019s slot skillset in Houston just as he did in Ames. The No. 79 overall pick, Noel (No. 50 on Jeremiah\u2019s board) narrowly topped Higgins\u2019 2024 production by accumulating 1,194 yards last season \u2014 to go with eight TDs. Noel played four seasons at Iowa State, while Higgins transferred from Eastern Kentucky in 2023.<\/p>\n

The Texans invested heavily at the receiver position after seeing Tank Dell<\/a> suffer another major injury \u2014 this one threatening to sideline him<\/a> throughout the 2025 season \u2014 and allowing Stefon Diggs<\/a> to defect (to the Patriots) in free agency. Houston also lost complementary cog Robert Woods<\/a> (to Pittsburgh). Even though it used a 2022 second-round pick on John Metchie<\/a>, the team has not seen the Alabama product become a dependable piece yet. The ex-Cyclones will aim to become Nico Collins<\/a>\u2018 top sidekicks this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a move that will force the hands of at least one other team, the Texans will make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2056],"tags":[80,7,221,253,2368,569,289,6,222,3571],"class_list":{"0":"post-37412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-2025-nfl-draft","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-texans","12":"tag-houstontexans","13":"tag-jayden-higgins","14":"tag-jaylin-noel","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-texans","17":"tag-transactions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114480080950900137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}