Texans have a crowded wide receiver room after adding second- and third-round picks

The Texans put significant draft resources into the wide receiver position, using their first pick, No. 34 overall, on wide receiver Jayden Higgins, and then taking Higgins' Iowa State teammate, wide receiver Jaylin Noel, with the 79th overall pick in the third round.

That leaves them with a crowded receiver room, but General Manager Nick Caserio says Higgins filled one need, Noel fit another, and they were both good values for where they were picked.

“They’re different kind of in terms of their skill sets, how they play,” Caserio said, via the Houston Chronicle. “But it’s a good example of like, well, you guys drafted a receiver; 'why would you draft another receiver?' Well, because Jaylin is a really good football player. Inside receiver, plays outside of formation, punt returner and handles the ball. He’s tough.”

At the moment, Higgins and Noel look like the fourth and fifth receivers behind a starting trio of Nico Collins, Christian Kirk and John Metchie. Tank Dell may not play at all this season after a serious knee injury at the end of last season.

But if Higgins and Noel can play the way the Texans think they can, it gives them good depth at a position that looked like one of need after Dell's injury and the offseason departure of Stefon Diggs, whose acquisition a year ago didn't make the impact the Texans were hoping for when he missed half the season with a knee injury.

Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said the Texans wanted competition at wide receiver, and now they have it.

“Yeah, we set out to accomplish adding great football players to our team, improve our team and come in and compete,” Ryans said, “and that’s what we did.”

Few expected one team to add two rookie receivers from Iowa State on the second day of the draft, but that's what the Texans did, and it fulfilled a plan to get better at a position where they needed to get better.