Jayden
Higgins.
Jayden
Higgins.
Iowa State· 6'4"· 214 lb· 4.47s 40
"A catch-point technician who plays the boundary like a power forward — a long-striding X receiver who stacks corners on vertical stems, high-points the football away from his frame and turns contested throws into routine completions."Pre-draft read
A true X receiver who lives on the outside third and makes his money above the rim. He releases with a patient first stride and a swipe-and-rip counter that keeps the stem on track against press, then stacks corners by the top of the route instead of fighting them at the catch point.
The hands are the separator. He plucks away from his frame, adjusts late to back-shoulder and fade throws, and tracks the ball over either shoulder with rare body control. Underneath he sells vertical tempo before snapping down on comebacks and digs, using late hands to fend off grabby corners. He is a strider, not a twitch mover, so the space he creates comes from tempo and timing rather than burst.
A play-action heavy West Coast/wide-zone passing game that isolates an X receiver into single-high looks and rewards back-shoulder and vertical contested throws.
Year 1: boundary X in three-wide, red-zone and third-down target opposite a primary separator. Ceiling: high-volume outside starter who anchors the perimeter and converts contested targets at a plus rate.
A quick-game, option-route Air Raid that asks him to win from the slot on horizontal breaks in under two seconds — his tempo-based separation and long strides get erased there.
Value is maximized when the quarterback trusts him to win the 50/50 rather than needing him to be schemed open.
Jayden Higgins (Iowa State) — Full 2024 Highlights
Full-season cut of his 87-catch, 1,183-yard senior year: press releases, back-shoulder wins and red-zone fades.
Jayden Higgins — Iowa State 2024 Highlights | 2025 NFL Draft
Draft-cut reel emphasizing catch-point control, contested grabs and vertical stem work on the boundary.
Jayden Higgins WR Iowa State — 2025 NFL Draft Prospect Review
All-22 breakdown of release package, route tempo and the separation questions that defined his evaluation.
The projection was never about creating space; it was about owning it. Higgins is a boundary starter who wins the top of the route and the last two yards of it, and the tape pointed one direction: an outside receiver you build a red-zone and third-down plan around, not a manufactured-touch weapon. The 4.47 at 6-4 only confirmed it: corners could not sit on the comeback.
What sold the evaluation was how his role survived a level jump. He arrived from Eastern Kentucky as an FCS volume target and immediately became Iowa State's outside answer on early downs and in the low red zone, then held it as a senior alongside another future draft pick, Jaylin Noel, without either bleeding the other. Rocco Becht fed him contested, timing-based looks on third down and at the goal line — the exact diet he would see in the NFL — and Higgins finished an AP third-team All-American on it.
Two flags shaped the grade. He was a fifth-year receiver whose cleanest tape came against non-elite coverage, and his separation was tempo- and length-driven, which ages faster than suddenness. Buying him meant buying a defined role with a high floor, not a ceiling play. Consensus landed him late round one to early round two, and Houston took him 34th to install a true X opposite Nico Collins.
- 01
Catch point dominance
Times his leap late, extends through contact and plucks the ball at its highest point; he converted an outsized share of contested targets in both the Missouri Valley and the Big 12 without needing separation.
- 02
Length and catch radius
6-4 1/8 with 33 1/8-inch arms and an 80-inch wingspan turns imperfect throws into completions on fades, back-shoulders and sideline comebacks that most receivers cannot reach.
- 03
Release package versus press
A patient first step with a swipe-and-rip counter clears jams cleanly and keeps his stem on schedule instead of getting rerouted into the boundary the way many big receivers are.
- 04
Ball tracking over either shoulder
Rare body control and late adjustment deep; he flips his hips mid-flight, locates over the far shoulder and finishes without losing balance or stride.
- 05
Red-zone weaponry
Height, a 39-inch vertical and pluck-strong hands made him a designed target inside the 20, where he scored 15 touchdowns across two Iowa State seasons on fades and slants.
- 01
Separation is manufactured, not explosive
He wins with tempo, length and hand usage rather than sudden burst, so against physical NFL corners his margin at the top of the route shrinks to nearly nothing.
- 02
Long strider off the line
Build-up speed means he needs runway; quick-game concepts and option routes that demand instant separation inside two seconds are not where his skill set plays.
- 03
Age and level of competition
A fifth-year senior who turned 22 before his final season, with roughly half his career production coming at the FCS level, which compresses the projected developmental runway.
- 04
Limited yards after catch
He rarely made the first man miss in space; production came from the catch itself rather than what followed, capping the explosive-play ceiling on shorter throws.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.47sp50
- Vertical
- 39inp50
- Broad jump
- 128inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.05sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.28sp50
- Bench
- 16repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Eastern Kentucky | 12 | 58 | 757 | 10 |
| 2023 | Iowa State | 13 | 53 | 983 | 6 |
| 2024 | Iowa State | 13 | 87 | 1183 | 9 |
| Career | — | 38 | 198 | 2923 | 25 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
- Rocco BechtQB24%
- Jaylin NoelWR11%
- Brett EskildsenWR8%
#2 of 19 tracked contributors · Produced well above his snap share · Offense explosiveness 1.38 (p95) · CFBD — usage x PPA per tracked player
Honors
- AP Third-team All-American (2024)
- Second-team All-Big 12 (2024)
- Iowa State bowl record: 214 receiving yards, 2023 Liberty Bowl
- 1,000-yard receiver in 2024 (1,183)
Reliable outside starter whose value is catch radius and red-zone work rather than separation.
Big-bodied boundary X who becomes a 100-target volume starter on contested throws and chain-movers.
Vertical and jump-ball specialist whose usage narrows to situational deep and fade targets.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Houston drafted Higgins 34th overall to give C.J. Stroud a true X opposite Nico Collins, then doubled down on the position later in the same draft. The rookie year validated the projection more than the doubts: he appeared in all 17 games, started 10, and finished with 41 receptions for 525 yards and six touchdowns on a 12-5 Texans team that won its way into the divisional round before losing 28-16 to New England. His first career score came in Week 4, a 24-yard strike from Stroud in a 26-0 shutout of Tennessee, and the touchdown total — six on modest volume — showed exactly where his value lives: the red zone and the boundary fade. PFF graded him 68.4 overall, mid-pack among qualifying receivers, with the six scores ranking inside the top 20 at the position. The separation flag remains real; his 12.8 yards per catch reflects a target diet of contested, situational throws rather than manufactured space. But as a rookie second-rounder who started more than half the season for a playoff offense and produced in scoring position, the early return reads like a hit in progress rather than a reach.