Nico Collins 2025 Season in Review

Nico Collins finished 2025 as the number 8 wide receiver in total PPR scoring and the number 11 wide receiver in PPR per game. A top-ten finish — in a year where Houston's offense was a slog. The Texans ranked twenty-first in total offensive expected points added, C.J. Stroud missed time, and backup Davis Mills even threw Collins one of his touchdowns. Yet Collins quietly stacked 1,117 yards on 71 catches over 15 games as the verified number one receiver on a 12-and-5 playoff team. Workhorse volume, alpha targets, an offense with no other answers. The ranking is real — it just came the hard way.

Now let's dig into the numbers, because they show exactly how Collins earned that finish. The usage was elite: a 24 percent average target share and a 35 percent average air yards share — more than a third of every downfield throw Houston attempted aimed his way. He turned 120 targets into plus 39.3 receiving expected points added, with 324 yards after the catch and 1.69 yards after catch above expectation per reception. He was creating after the ball arrived, not just running past people. His average separation of 2.3 yards is modest — meaning he was winning contested looks against top corners, not running open. And he was steady: 15.1 PPR per game, double-digit scoring in eleven of fifteen, with a clear high-end gear in Weeks 10, 11, 13, and 15 where he posted between 21 and 24 points. The muffed games were narrow — a 5.5 in the Week 1 loss to the Rams and a 6.7 in Seattle. For a receiver carrying this much air-yards freight, that's a steady floor.

The play that captures the season came in Week 15 against the Cardinals — fourth quarter, third and four from the Arizona four-yard line, Texans up 33 to 20. Shotgun, Stroud to Collins on a short middle route. Four yards. Touchdown. His second score of the day in a 40-to-20 win, capping a 24-point afternoon on three catches for 85 yards and two scores. The alpha receiver getting fed in the red zone on third down when Houston needed to ice the game. That's the Collins year in one snap: not always loud, almost always central, the guy his offense trusted when the situation got tight.