Houston's 2024 season ended in similar fashion to its 2023 campaign, with a Divisional Round loss following a 10-7 finish and an impressive wild-card bludgeoning.
But the outside view of the Texans' performance -- a stagnation under the weight of heightened expectations -- was far different from the reception after the team became upstart darlings during coach DeMeco Ryans and quarterback C.J. Stroud's first year in town.
Wide receiver Nico Collins shares none of those pessimistic opinions, citing the club's injury issues and the strength of its roster moving forward while assessing the '24 Texans on Friday's The Insiders.
“Due to a lot of injuries, we kind of went down," Collins said. "But I feel like we have the right pieces, the right people, the right coaches in the right positions. I feel like we know what type of guys we have in the locker room and we know where we want to go. I feel like the main thing is [we] just got to be healthy.”
Houston indeed dealt with injuries, namely at Collins' position.
Thanks to an offseason trade for wideout Stefon Diggs, the Texans were propped up as an offense ready to break out. Instead, the unit finished 19th in scoring, six slots lower than the year before. Diggs contributed 47 catches for 496 yards and three touchdowns before tearing his ACL in Week 8.
Tank Dell, coming off a season-ending broken fibula and a gunshot wound suffered in April, lacked his signature explosiveness, seemingly rounding back into form during a Week 15 game only to suffer a significant knee injury. Collins, the only member of the three-headed monster to reach the playoffs healthy, missed five games of his own due to a hamstring injury.
He was plenty dangerous after coming back, including posting seven catches for 122 yards and a score in a 32-12 wild-card win over the Los Angeles Chargers, but he wasn't necessarily his world-beating self. In Weeks 1-5, he eclipsed 100 receiving yards three times, with a low of 78, which came in the game he was injured after two catches.
After his return from Weeks 11 through the Divisional Round, Collins fell under the 78-yard mark in five of nine contests.
It all contributed to an underperforming offense, which in turn led to coordinator Bobby Slowik's firing.
With former Rams pass game coordinator Nick Caley now on board to helm the group, Collins expects to pick things back up in a big way. Visions of Los Angeles' Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp racking up yardage under Sean McVay and with the help of Caley has not gone unnoticed.
“It’s gonna be a great year for us," Collins said, looking ahead to the 2025 season. "New OC, but I feel like we’ve got the same guys, same mindset, come in ready to work. Can’t wait to meet him, get ready for OTAs, learn the playbook and get going.”
Should Caley reinvigorate Houston's offense as Collins hopes, it would go a long way in avoiding the same fate the Texans met three weeks ago in the playoffs.
The Texans, largely thanks to their swarming defense, played the Chiefs tough to reach the fourth quarter of the AFC Divisional Round trailing by a single point. However, they failed to score meaningfully again, with their only remaining points coming on a safety at the end of the game purposely given up by Kansas City to waste time.
“We left a bad taste in our mouth leaving K.C.," Collins said. "We know what it takes. We know what we got to do to make that next jump.”
Making that jump will require growth, as well as better adjustments to possible moving pieces on offense, given Diggs isn't under contract and the severity of Dell's injury.
And as seen in the Texans' recent campaign, progression is by no means linear. Regardless, Collins is confident his squad is built to go onward and upward.
"We’ve got to figure it out, and I feel like we will," he said. "I’m not stressing about it. I love this team. I love the guys.”