‘Ain’t worried about it, got to get on track,’ Texans’ Nico Collins unconcerned about lack of involvement in first game

HOUSTON – Instead of being in his usual featured role and catching touchdowns, Texans star wide receiver Nico Collins found himself in an unwanted holding pattern.

With a lack of pass protection against the Los Angeles Rams, defensive strategies designed to curtail his impact and too many penalties creating long down-and-distance situations, Collins became an afterthought in an offense stuck in neutral.

A Pro Bowl selection Collins was held to three catches for 25 yards on five targets in a 14-9 loss to the Rams at SoFi Stadium. The Texans failed to score a touchdown in offensive coordinator Nick Caley’s play-calling debut.

Although it wasn’t what Collins or anyone associated with the Texans envisioned, he’s unfazed.

“I ain’t worried about it,” Collins said. “I’ve got to continue to get open, continue to be good on my details, continue to run great routes. Then, the ball will continue to come.

“Can’t get down on yourself if you’re not getting the ball. You have to continue to show up, continue to run great routes, have the right depth and right details. And continue to have fun. The ball is gonna come.”

The way Collins and quarterback C.J. Stroud have clicked over two seasons has been prolific and clutch, piling up numbers. In 27 regular-season games over the past two seasons since the Texans drafted Stroud out of Ohio State, Collins’ career has hit a new stride with a combined 148 catches for 2,303 yards and 15 touchdowns.

In the postseason, it’s been just as good with a combined 23 catches for 367 yards and two touchdowns in four playoff games together. In those playoff games, Stroud made it a special point to look downfield to his go-to guy. He targeted Collins 33 times.

“Throw it to Nico as many times as we can, of course,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said with a smile. “Everybody knows. That’s a question everybody wants to answer. Of course, we want to get the ball to Nico. He’s one of our best players.”

“We were not doing things conducive to staying on track and being able to run our offense in that type of fashion. It’s going to be hard to get the ball to a certain player here or there because it’s 2nd-and-18, 2nd-and-10, third-and-long.”

The Texans had 11 penalties for 80 yards against the Rams. They committed seven penalties on offense.

Collins, 26, represents the prototypical NFL receiver at 6-foot-4, 222 pounds with 4.44 speed in the 40-yard dash. He has 218 career receptions for 3,230 yards and 18 touchdowns. He caught 68 passes for 1,006 yards and seven touchdowns despite missing five games due to a strained hamstring.

Nico’s a huge part of our team, obviously," Caley said. “So, we always have Nico at the forefront of our mind. There’s always an approach every single week to get our players in position to make plays. Credit to the Rams in that case last week.

“We had got to go forward. When you’re off-schedule, you take your game plan and it makes it a little bit more challenging. You try to adjust from there. Nico’s a huge part of our team and a big-time player for us. We love him.”

Make no mistake, Stroud will prioritize getting Collins the football.

“He wants the ball, and it’s our job to find ways to get it to him,” Stroud said. “I thought we could have, definitely I could have, done a better job of getting him the rock when he was open.

“I think he’s going to show up big-time. Every dog has his day and Nico’s growling at the mouth like a rottweiler trying to get that ball. I’m always looking for No. 12. That’s never a question. He’ll be all right.”

Well, perhaps. That’s all contingent on avoiding penalties. If that trend continues, it’s hard to get Collins or anyone involved more.

“It’s hard to bounce back when you’re 2nd-and-15, 3rd-and-15,” Collins said. “Those are hard plays to get back on track. So, I feel like as an offense, we’ve got to continue to click, continue to find that groove. Then when you find that groove, then (passes) are gonna come.”

How do the Texans fix this problem? What happens if they can’t find a rhythm?

If we don’t get past step one, man, we’ll be done,“ Collins said. ”But I ain’t worried about it, man. It’s just Week 1, Week 2. It’s a marathon. There’s plenty of opportunities to get better and to grow. That’s my mindset.

“Any explosives we need as an offense. Everybody’s gonna feed off of those. I feel like this offense, we need that. We need those explosive plays to get that energy that we’ve been searching for.”

Retired Texans All-Pro wide receiver Andre Johnson told KPRC 2 that he and quarterback Matt Schaub used body language and signals to throw off the defense.

“We have adjustments, we have the signals and stuff if I’m in the boundary,” Collins said. “We got our little signals and if he sees opportunity, he’s gonna take advantage of it. We have our cadences, we got our signals. If he need me, I got him.

A two-time defending AFC South champion, the Texans are regarded as a strong playoff contender again. They return several key players, including quarterback C.J. Stroud, defensive ends Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter and cornerback Derek Stingley Jr.

The Texans are 0-6 all-time as a franchise in the AFC divisional round. The obvious goal: advancing further in the postseason, making a serious playoff run with the goal the same as every team, to reach and win a Super Bowl.

“I feel like we just got to go out and be us,” Collins said. “You know the goals: get to the Super Bowl. That’s everybody’s goal, but I feel like for us, man, we got to take it one game at a time, one step at a time, and go out, and just have fun and be us, and you know go out play for each other, that was the most important part.

“Man, just winning, competing out there with my brothers, man, and enjoying the game we’ve been playing since young, man. Just really going out and having fun. It’s going to be a great year, man. I feel like the energy in the building is great, everybody’s locked in and excited and ready to go out there and have fun."

The connection between Collins and Stroud is on point with excellent chemistry.

From a knowledge, body language and strategy standpoint, what’s understood between the Texans’ Pro Bowl quarterback and Pro Bowl wide receiver doesn’t need to be explained.

“It’s like taking candy from a baby,” Collins told KPRC 2 following a joint practice with the Detroit Lions. “It’s bread and butter. It’s only right for us to continue to grow, continue to find the timing and continue to work on our craft.

“You can’t get comfortable. I feel like that’s one thing you can’t do in this league is get comfortable. I feel like for us, me and him, continue to grow as a unit as an offense and continue to click. Everybody, that’s our goal.”

A native of Birmingham, Ala., Collins was the second player drafted by Nick Caserio after he was hired as the Texans’ general manager. After selecting Stanford quarterback Davis Mills in the third round, Caserio traded up to select Collins with the 89th overall pick of the 2021 NFL draft.

It proved to be a wise decision.

The arrival of Stroud started the tandem with Collins, a former University of Michigan standout.

A Buckeye and a Wolverine have become fast friends as teammates after being Big Ten Conference rivals.

Stroud is more outgoing and talkative. Collins is relatively quiet as the quintessential Southern gentleman type of personality.

“We have a really good relationship,” Stroud said. “He is very to himself, very quiet. But he talks to me about a lot. I talk to him about a lot. I think we’re really on the same page all the time. There’s only a couple times throughout the day where we probably don’t be on the same page.”

With the Texans after dealing with various durability issues in his first two seasons due to shoulder and foot issues, Collins had a breakthrough season in his first year playing with Stroud. He caught a career-high 80 passes for 1,297 yards and eight touchdowns for an AFC South championship squad. Last season, he made the Pro Bowl despite missing five games with a strained hamstring. Collins still caught 68 passes for 1,006 yards and seven scores.

“Where Nico has grown the most, to me, in these first three years is just the confidence,” Ryans said. “Every time I see Nico I say, ‘What’s up playmaker? You are a big-time playmaker, walk that way.’ He’s done that. He shows up that way on the field.

“Anytime we need a play, we know it and I think the opponent knows it, that’s where the ball is going. With everybody knowing, he still shows up and makes big-time plays in any critical moment that you need him to. That’s one thing I’ve seen is just that confidence is exactly where it needs to be for Nico.”

The Texans lost in the AFC divisional round to the Kansas City Chiefs last season and the Baltimore Ravens two years ago. The Texans are 0-6 all-time in the divisional round and are the only team in the AFC to never reach the championship game.

A full season together for Collins with Stroud could be a huge boost to their outlook as a contender.

“Man, I feel like we can shock the world,” Collins said. “Everybody, you know, not just me and No. 7 (Stroud), but this entire team, entire offense, defense, man, type of guys we have in the locker room. I feel that we can go out and make some noise, but as always, start with your mind, say it in your heart and how you want to go about it."

Between Collins’ speed and towering presence as the headliner of a new-look receiving corps, the Texans’ offense could be extremely potent.

The Texans are aiming high, as is Collins.

This could be an extremely competitive team this fall. To take the next step as a team, the Texans need to start fast and finish strong. Health is of paramount importance.

Collins is upbeat about it all. He’s highly encouraged about the team outlook from a big-picture perspective.

“I just feel like the guys we have in the locker room, the guys we have, everybody’s special,” Collins said. “Everybody has got the right mindset to come out and get better every day. And so we got to take one game at a time, one play at a time, man and see where we go, continue to grow every day.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com