HOUSTON – For Texans veteran wide receiver Christian Kirk, it’s been a mostly frustrating start to the season.
Due to a pair of hamstring injuries, sustaining one before the start of the regular season and then reinjuring his leg after playing in three games, Kirk has missed four of the Texans’ first seven games. Now, he’s back from the hamstring injury after missing two games against the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers and is set to return Sunday against the Denver Broncos.
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“I feel good,” Kirk said. “The injury process has been going smoothly, especially with this one. Obviously, it was an unfortunate thing, but I’ve been able to bounce back pretty quickly. Looking forward to just progressing throughout the week and hopefully get out there and feel my best on Sunday.”
Kirk has caught 10 passes for 109 yards in three games, two starts and 16 targets. A year ago with the Jacksonville Jaguars before being traded in the offseason to the Texans for a seventh-round draft pick, the former Texas A&M standout caught 27 passes for 379 yards and one touchdown in eight games. In his first two seasons with the Jaguars, Kirk caught a combined 141 passes for 1,895 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Having Kirk back along with Pro Bowl wide receiver Nico Collins from a concussion provides a boost to a receiving corps that excelled against the 49ers. Especially Jaylin Noel, Xavier Hutchinson and Jayden Higgins.
“To do the most to take advantage of their opportunities,” Kirk said. “All guys that can do a range of different things on the field. And I think they were all able to display that on Sunday. So I’m definitely excited to get back in the mix. Go get back out there and just continue to add a bit of the explosive piece and keep showing what I’m going to do.
“I just think one that complements one another. I think we all bring a different skill set to the room and to the offense. And so just playing amongst one another, having a bunch of fun, playing with confidence, playing fast. You see the ability to be able to stretch the field, make the catches over the middle. I think, we all kind of have a little bit of that. So it’s just complementing one another.”
Kirk was coming off his most productive game of the season against the Baltimore Ravens. Prior to the open week, Kirk caught four passes for 64 yards, including a 47-yard catch where he nearly scored a touchdown on four targets.
“Look, we’re happy that they’re back,” Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley said of Kirk and Collins. “We’re excited that they’re back. The other guys, everybody stepped up and did a great job, too. We have a lot of faith. We have a deep wide receiver room that are continually getting better. So, we have faith in all those guys. But we’re glad to have Nico and C.K. back out there.
“The other guys keep going at the same, continuing to improve. I think the more we’re out there, the more we have an opportunity to really build cohesiveness together as a group. Again, we got a pretty deep receiver room. So, we’re lucky for that. Definitely thankful we get these two guys back, too, to join us.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com