Houston Texans fans have to be feeling pretty good about how Nick Caserio did in his fifth draft since becoming the general manager of the organization. Arguably the most popular move made by Caserio and the Texans in the draft was reuniting Iowa State receivers Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins, who will now have played together in Ames and Houston.
Matt Miller of ESPN loved the Noel pick for Houston, pointing out that he had the ISU receiver ranked 40th on his draft board. Noel, of course, ended up going 79th overall to the Texans and Miller loved the value there for Houston. Miller also said that Noel can be Tank Dell's replacement and that's a big reason why this pick made so much sense considering Dell is going to miss 2025 due to injury.
Texans’ sneaky draft move just made the rest of the NFL look foolish
The Noel pick was great on its own but when you factor in that Houston had previously selected his Iowa State teammate Higgins in the second round, it only makes the pick look better. These two balled out together in Ames and now the hope is they can bring that chemistry to H-Town to help C.J. Stroud out immensely in his third NFL season.
The Texans went from having a stacked wide receiver room this time last year to that going downhill pretty quickly when Dell got injured and Stefon Diggs bolted for New England after just eight starts in Houston. Fortunately, the Texans are in a good place now at the position and Noel is a big reason why.
It's not a shock that Miller loved this pick so much because, quite frankly, Texans fans did as well. In today's pass-happy NFL, adding two talented receivers is a smart move but adding two talented receivers who played together in college is even smarter.
