July 15, 2026 • 5 mins
Wednesday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler put Texans star wide receiver Nico Collins under the microscope. The guys discuss whether Collins is truly an elite receiver, whether his injury history is a legitimate concern, or if both can be true at the same time. While Collins has yet to suffer a major injury in his NFL career, he has missed games in every season. Listen to the full conversation as Clanton and Wexler break down Collins' outlook for the upcoming season and where he ranks among the NFL's top wide receivers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're ten days out from training camp, so every day
on the show five o'clock, some days three o'clock, three
thirty some other days will give you some aspect of
training camp that is worth watching, storyline that needs to
be viewed and analyzed to be out of training camp
all throughout once they get started two weeks from today.
Two weeks from today will be our first show following
(00:21):
training camp. So the ten shows we have between now
and then, including today, I got ten items to discuss
with you about what will unfold during training camp, and
we'll have installment number one here after we answer this
question about Nico Collins. Is he elite? Is the injury
or poem? Is it both? Are you concerned? That list
(00:45):
we've been talking about from ESPN is one side of things.
There's a couple other entities rolling up to the training
camp portion of the calendar doing their own list. PFF
is among them, and I ran through what they had
to say about the top running backs in the league,
the top quarterbacks in the league getting off of their numbers,
and the expectations for this season based on what other
(01:05):
seasons have produced, and it just painted a very unflattering
picture of what CJ. Stroud has to work with, or
what Nick Keyley has to work with, or with what
the wide receivers have to work with. Because a bunch
of position groups or individual players and their offensive coordinator
who are all back half of the league talents or
(01:26):
back half of the league position groups wide receivers individually speaking,
this is one area where the Texans should look okay.
And that's because of Nico Collins. That's because of what
he has produced. That's because of where he should be
slotted in, whether it's PFF or ESPN or any analysts
or executives or whatnot. Where's the rank among the top
(01:47):
wide receivers in the NFL. And I actually happened to
have a Twitter or x platform back and forth with
somebody about Nick Nico just this week. Pukaakua, JSN, Justin Jefferson,
Jamar Chase, Amon ra Same Brown. If I told you
they were the top five in any order, I don't
even think anybody would disagree. I don't think you'd slide
AJ Brown in there. I don't think you slide Nico
(02:08):
in there. Drake London, George Pickens, Chris a Lobby or
anybody else. I think that is a tier. It's those
five players. Jefferson's numbers might go up and down based
on the fact that he doesn't have a quarterback. Last year,
he didn't have a quarterback. This year he might have
a quarterback with Kyler Murray, Jamar Chase. If it's a
full season with Joe Burrow, he's probably gonna have unreal numbers.
(02:30):
Jackson Smith and Jigma gets a second year with Sam Donald.
He was insane in year one with Sam Donald. He
was the best receiver in the NFL. And Pukinako has
been very good in the offense that they have, and
obviously he's playing with the MVP. So those guys are
at the top of the board. And Detroit's offense, while
it changed slightly without some of their coaches, what Amon
(02:52):
Ross Brown does is second to none other than these four.
So second to four. The next group is where Nico
Collins belonged, but it's probably a much bigger group Nicocollins,
CD Lamb, George Pickens, AJ Brown, Drake London. Would you
cut it off there? Would you include kritzl Lave, Terry McLaurin,
(03:12):
DeVante Smith or others, or would you say top ten?
He's in the second five without debate that last part
would be accurate. He's number eight per PFF. I happen
to know some of these numbers, like I said, because
I was looking them up myself in a conversation I
was having. Aside from this, he's fourth among this top
(03:33):
group of receivers the three years he's played with CJ. Stroud,
He's fourth in nine of them top nine receivers in
receiving yards. Take that group of players, he's in it.
He's ninth even with his missed games. He's played the
fewest number of games of those nine and he has
the fourth most touchdowns, ninth most yards, but he has
(03:53):
he's number one in yards per catch, He's number four
in yards per game. He missed a few games last year.
He missed five games of the year before he missed
one of your playoff games. This past year. He has
not played the full seventeen games with CJ. Stroud, or
in this case, a full nineteen games with CJ.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Stroud.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
CJ's also missed a handful of those over the three years.
It's a is it more of a fact or a
concern that Nico Collins has missed time he's playing NFL football.
He has not had any catastrophic you're out for the
next eight months injuries. He has missed a bunch of games.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Because I know you can do this off the top
of your head, run down the list of his injuries.
What has caused him to miss.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Concussion, hamstring, neck, shoulder. I guess, if I'm not mistaken,
I think he had an ankle injury.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
So nowhere in that list that you just rattled off,
is there anything that would make you think, Wow, this
is something out of there, and this is stuff that
people have happened to them all the time playing that
position in the NFL. Concussions, soft tissue, you know, whatever
it is. But because attendance does count, all that tells
(05:07):
me is that, well, if he had been present for
more games, think of the numbers he could have put up.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
But he couldn't put up any numbers in the last
game of the season, right because he wasn't there.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And so that's why I get to the concern part,
because every time it feels like the Texans need him
and I'm not even this isn't even a knock at
Nico because he can't help that he gets hurt. But
if you're not there. What good does it do the
team if all these things that you can accomplish when
you are on the field aren't happening in the most
important games. And that's where I would say it's it's
(05:38):
a concern. Yeah, to me, it's not. It's football.
We're ten days out from training camp, so every day
on the show five o'clock, some days three o'clock, three
thirty some other days will give you some aspect of
training camp that is worth watching, storyline that needs to
be viewed and analyzed to be out of training camp
all throughout once they get started two weeks from today.
Two weeks from today will be our first show following
(00:21):
training camp. So the ten shows we have between now
and then, including today, I got ten items to discuss
with you about what will unfold during training camp, and
we'll have installment number one here after we answer this
question about Nico Collins. Is he elite? Is the injury
or poem? Is it both? Are you concerned? That list
(00:45):
we've been talking about from ESPN is one side of things.
There's a couple other entities rolling up to the training
camp portion of the calendar doing their own list. PFF
is among them, and I ran through what they had
to say about the top running backs in the league,
the top quarterbacks in the league getting off of their numbers,
and the expectations for this season based on what other
(01:05):
seasons have produced, and it just painted a very unflattering
picture of what CJ. Stroud has to work with, or
what Nick Keyley has to work with, or with what
the wide receivers have to work with. Because a bunch
of position groups or individual players and their offensive coordinator
who are all back half of the league talents or
(01:26):
back half of the league position groups wide receivers individually speaking,
this is one area where the Texans should look okay.
And that's because of Nico Collins. That's because of what
he has produced. That's because of where he should be
slotted in, whether it's PFF or ESPN or any analysts
or executives or whatnot. Where's the rank among the top
(01:47):
wide receivers in the NFL. And I actually happened to
have a Twitter or x platform back and forth with
somebody about Nick Nico just this week. Pukaakua, JSN, Justin Jefferson,
Jamar Chase, Amon ra Same Brown. If I told you
they were the top five in any order, I don't
even think anybody would disagree. I don't think you'd slide
AJ Brown in there. I don't think you slide Nico
(02:08):
in there. Drake London, George Pickens, Chris a Lobby or
anybody else. I think that is a tier. It's those
five players. Jefferson's numbers might go up and down based
on the fact that he doesn't have a quarterback. Last year,
he didn't have a quarterback. This year he might have
a quarterback with Kyler Murray, Jamar Chase. If it's a
full season with Joe Burrow, he's probably gonna have unreal numbers.
(02:30):
Jackson Smith and Jigma gets a second year with Sam Donald.
He was insane in year one with Sam Donald. He
was the best receiver in the NFL. And Pukinako has
been very good in the offense that they have, and
obviously he's playing with the MVP. So those guys are
at the top of the board. And Detroit's offense, while
it changed slightly without some of their coaches, what Amon
(02:52):
Ross Brown does is second to none other than these four.
So second to four. The next group is where Nico
Collins belonged, but it's probably a much bigger group Nicocollins,
CD Lamb, George Pickens, AJ Brown, Drake London. Would you
cut it off there? Would you include kritzl Lave, Terry McLaurin,
(03:12):
DeVante Smith or others, or would you say top ten?
He's in the second five without debate that last part
would be accurate. He's number eight per PFF. I happen
to know some of these numbers, like I said, because
I was looking them up myself in a conversation I
was having. Aside from this, he's fourth among this top
(03:33):
group of receivers the three years he's played with CJ. Stroud,
He's fourth in nine of them top nine receivers in
receiving yards. Take that group of players, he's in it.
He's ninth even with his missed games. He's played the
fewest number of games of those nine and he has
the fourth most touchdowns, ninth most yards, but he has
(03:53):
he's number one in yards per catch, He's number four
in yards per game. He missed a few games last year.
He missed five games of the year before he missed
one of your playoff games. This past year. He has
not played the full seventeen games with CJ. Stroud, or
in this case, a full nineteen games with CJ.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Stroud.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
CJ's also missed a handful of those over the three years.
It's a is it more of a fact or a
concern that Nico Collins has missed time he's playing NFL football.
He has not had any catastrophic you're out for the
next eight months injuries. He has missed a bunch of games.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Because I know you can do this off the top
of your head, run down the list of his injuries.
What has caused him to miss.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Concussion, hamstring, neck, shoulder. I guess, if I'm not mistaken,
I think he had an ankle injury.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
So nowhere in that list that you just rattled off,
is there anything that would make you think, Wow, this
is something out of there, and this is stuff that
people have happened to them all the time playing that
position in the NFL. Concussions, soft tissue, you know, whatever
it is. But because attendance does count, all that tells
(05:07):
me is that, well, if he had been present for
more games, think of the numbers he could have put up.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
But he couldn't put up any numbers in the last
game of the season, right because he wasn't there.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And so that's why I get to the concern part,
because every time it feels like the Texans need him
and I'm not even this isn't even a knock at
Nico because he can't help that he gets hurt. But
if you're not there. What good does it do the
team if all these things that you can accomplish when
you are on the field aren't happening in the most
important games. And that's where I would say it's it's
(05:38):
a concern. Yeah, to me, it's not. It's football.
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