The Texans will not have their top wideout for Sunday’s game in New England, but the Patriots will have their top cornerback.
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said at his press conference that Christian Gonzalez was considered questionable to play as he worked his way back from a concussion, but the team’s final injury report shows that he has cleared the protocol and no longer has an injury designation. The Texans ruled wide receiver Nico Collins out with a concussion.
Edge rusher Harold Landry (knee) did not practice on Friday and is listed as questionable. Running back Terrell Jennings (concussion) is also carrying a questionable tag into the weekend.
Jennings and cornerback Alex Austin (wrist) remain on injured reserve. Austin has no injury designation and the Patriots have an open spot on their 53-man roster.
Texans Clips
The Texans will be missing their top receiver when they try to upset the Patriots in New England on Sunday afternoon.
The team announced that Nico Collins has been ruled out on Friday. Collins suffered a concussion in the team’s 30-6 win over the Steelers on Monday night in the wild card round and he was not able to practice at all this week.
Collins had 71 catches for 1,117 yards and six touchdowns in the regular season. Christian Kirk had a strong game against the Steelers and the Texans will need him to produce again this weekend.
Right tackle Trent Brown (ankle) returned to practice on Friday and is listed as questionable to play. Wide receiver Justin Watson has been ruled out with a concussion.
Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez returned to full practice participation on Thursday, but he hasn’t been written into the lineup for Sunday’s game against the Texans just yet.
Gonzalez entered the concussion protocol after being injured in last Sunday’s win over the Chargers and head coach Mike Vrabel told reporters on Friday that Gonzalez will be listed as questionable for this weekend. The team could update Gonzalez’s status if he clears the protocol in the coming hours.
Vrabel also said that edge rusher Harold Landry (knee) and running back Terrell Jennings (concussion) will carry questionable designations into the game.
Jennings would need to be activated in order to play against Houston and the Patriots also have cornerback Alex Austin eligible to come off injured reserve.
The chances of cornerback Christian Gonzalez playing against the Texans on Sunday are looking better.
Gonzalez moved from limited to full practice participation at Thursday’s practice. That suggests he’s moving closer to clearing concussion protocol in time to be in the lineup for the divisional round.
Right tackle Morgan Moses (knee) and offensive lineman Thayer Munford (knee) returned to practice on a limited basis. Linebackers Anfernee Jennings (knee) and Harold Landry (knee) remained in the limited category.
Cornerback Alex Austin (wrist), tight end Hunter Henry (knee), running back Terrell Jennings (concussion), and defensive lineman Khyiris Tonga (foot) were the team’s full participants.
The Patriots will issue their final injury report for their matchup with Houston on Friday.
Wide receiver Nico Collins wasn’t the only offensive starter out of Texans practice on Thursday.
Right tackle Trent Brown also missed practice for the second straight day. Brown, who played every snap in the team’s win over the Steelers, has been sidelined by an ankle injury.
Defensive lineman Denico Autry (knee) and wide receiver Justin Watson (concussion) were also out of practice. They did not practice on Wednesday either.
Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (knee), cornerback Kamari Lassiter (ankle, knee), defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins (elbow), offensive lineman Tytus Howard (ankle), offensive guard Ed Ingram (shoulder) and running back Jawhar Jordan (ankle) remained limited participants. Safety Jaylen Reed (knee), long snapper Austin Brinkman (knee), and left tackle Aireontae Ersery (thumb) were full participants.
It’s looking like the Texans are going to have to go without wide receiver Nico Collins against the Patriots on Sunday.
Reporters at the open portion of Thursday’s practice noted that Collins was not on the field with the rest of the team. Collins suffered a concussion in the wild card win over the Steelers and did not take part in Wednesday’s practice either.
Given the need to pass through several stages of increased work in order to pass the concussion protocol, it seems unlikely that Collins will have enough time to be cleared for this weekend.
Christian Kirk stepped up with a big game against the Steelers and he is joined at wideout by Jayden Higgins, Jaylin Noel, Xavier Hutchinson, Justin Watson, Braxton Berrios.
Six down, seven to go.
The postseason is nearly halfway over, after the wild-card round. Simms went 4-2 straight up and 3-3 against the spread; I was 3-3 and 2-4, respectively.
Simms has clinched the straight-up title for the year, at 185-92-1. I’m 177-100-1. Against the spread, I’m clinging to a two-game lead, 141-133-4 and he’s 139-135-4.
This week, we have two disagreements against the spread, and two straight up.
For all division-round picks, you know what to do.
Bills at Broncos (-1.5)
Josh Allen knows the clock is ticking louder and louder on his chances to get to a Super Bowl. This may be his best chance yet to make it, especially without Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow in the playoff field. While the future is extremely bright for the Broncos, this year could end up being another stepping stone toward the ultimate prize.
Florio’s pick: Bills 24, Broncos 21.
Simms’s pick: Bills 24, 21.
49ers at Seahawks (-7)
Sam Darnold gets another chance to make a big play in a big spot, and to avoid making a bad play in a bad spot. And Kyle Shanahan gets another chance to cook up a game plan that will yield more than three points. All the pressure is on Seattle; none of the pressure is on the 49ers. In this round, sometimes that can make all the difference.
Simms, obviously, disagrees. He thinks Darnold will get it done, and that the Seattle defense will once again hold the San Francisco offense in check.
Florio’s pick: 49ers 27, Seahawks 24.
Simms’s pick: Seahawks 27, 49ers 17.
Texans at Patriots (-3)
The Texans’ defense is on par with other great units that carried the franchise to a Super Bowl win. This week, they likely won’t have to overcome a surprisingly poor performance from quarterback C.J. Stroud.
Florio’s pick: Texans 16, Patriots 13.
Simms’s pick: Texans 20, Patriots 17.
Rams (-3.5) at Bears
Who will step up in the fourth quarter, and who will step off? The Bears thrive when they’re firmly behind the 8 ball. And number 18 has shown that, in those moments, he can rise to a higher level.
Simms sees the Rams as being good enough on both sides of the ball to pull away.
Florio’s pick: Bears 30, Rams 27.
Simms’s pick: Rams 38, Bears 27.
The NFL previously applied the term “super” to the wild-card round of the playoffs. This year, the ratings were.
Via Sports Business Journal, the six games televised by Fox (which had two), CBS, Prime Video, NBC and ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 attracted an average of 31.9 million viewers.
That’s a 13-percent increase from last year, and the best since the NFL expanded the playoffs from six teams to seven in 2020, which grew the wild-card round from four games to six.
The total average is the best since the four-game format attracted an average of 32.6 million in 2016 for these games: Raiders-Texans, Lions-Seahawks, Dolphins-Steelers, and Packers-Giants. The smallest victory margin that year was 13 points, with an average score of 30-11.
This year, four of the games went down to the wire. Two of the games were lopsided.
Patriots left tackle Will Campbell did not have the cleanest playoff debut.
Campbell allowed several pressures during New England’s win over the Chargers, including one that Odafe Oweh turned into a strip-sack of quarterback Drake Maye. That sparked some online criticism of his play, but Campbell said he’s not interested in what anybody else has to say because he holds himself to “the highest expectation of anybody.”
Campbell also said that he’s not spending any time lamenting mistakes from last week as he prepares to face Texans edge rushers Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter this Sunday.
“It’s my job. It’s what they pay me to do.” Campbell said, via Chris Mason of MassLive.com. “I can look at it and be like, ‘Yeah, I wish I had two plays back last week,’ but that’s wasting energy towards this week. Somebody told me that and it’s very true. I can’t be worrying about last week, because quite frankly, the second after it happened, it doesn’t mean [expletive] anymore. There’s not anything I can do about it, the people in the stands can do about it, you just have to move on and keep playing. You let can’t one play turn into 10.”
The Patriots didn’t move out to a two-score lead over the Chargers until the fourth quarter of their 16-3 win over the Chargers. The Texans had a similar experience against the Steelers before their defense broke the game open and the Patriots’ ability to protect Maye will be vital to their chances of prevailing again this time around.
Texans rookie Jaylen Reed was carjacked at gunpoint on January 4, according to KHOU.com.
Court documents show that Reed, a sixth-round pick in April 2025, was approached outside his home by three men armed with rifles. They initially demanded that Reed give them everything in his house, before stealing Reed’s SUV and leaving the scene.
Police located the SUV and pursued it. When the chase ended in a crash, one man — 20-year-old Montreal Dwayne Frye — was in the vehicle.
Frye faces two felony charges, and he’s being held on $500,000 bond.
Frye and the other suspects, who remain at large, apparently targeted Reed because he is a “known public figure in the community.”
Reed played in seven regular-season games in 2025, with one start. He also played in Monday night’s playoff win over the Steelers, taking 82.5 percent of the defensive snaps.
