Jaylin Noel — Week 2: One Catch on Five Targets
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Noel caught 1 of 5 targets, a 31-yard throw deep left on the first snap after Cincinnati went up 20–6, and ran once for 13 yards, the longest designed run by either team that counted. He also returned three punts and a kickoff 31 yards to open the second half, in a 20–6 loss to the Bengals.
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20 to six, Bengals, 12 16 left in the fourth quarter, first and 10 at the Houston 20 after a touchback. C.J. Stroud threw deep left to Jaylin Noel, 31 yards in the air, and Noel went out of bounds at the Cincinnati 49. +1.9 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position. It was Houston's second-longest completion of the day. The next throw also went to Noel, short middle, incomplete; then a run for −1, an intentional grounding penalty, and a punt.
That was his only catch. The line: five targets, one catch, 31 yards, −0.2 expected points on his targets. The four incompletions were all short throws by the play-by-play's description: first and 10 from the Houston eight in the first quarter, first and 10 with eight seconds left in the half, second and 10 on the second snap of the third quarter, and the one after the catch. Two targets before halftime, three after, none on third down.
He also had Houston's longest designed run. Second and five at the Cincinnati 45 with two-oh-seven left in a scoreless first quarter, around right end for 13 yards to the 32. +1.1 expected points and 5.1 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. It was the longest designed run by either team that was not called back; only a Stroud scramble went farther on the ground. In the return game he brought back three punts for five, 10 17 yards, the last with an illegal block flag against Houston, fair-caught three more, and returned the second-half kickoff 31 yards to the Houston 36.
Five targets tied him with Kayshon Boutte, behind Dalton Schultz's 14, Xavier Hutchinson's nine, Jared Wayne's seven and Woody Marks's six, in a game Nico Collins missed; he was on the inactive list, per the Texans' site.
Back in June the preview had Noel 90-first among wide receivers as a rookie and said volume, never availability, was the issue, with the slot job open in front of him. Week 1 was two targets, two catches, 53 yards, both late in a half. Sunday the targets rose to five with Collins out, and one of them connected. Seven targets and 84 yards in two games, all of the yards on three deep or late plays. The volume question is still the question. Houston is at the Colts on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
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