The Houston Texans are Super Bowl contenders this season, but unfortunately, the offense is vestigial to those chances. They’re, at worst, a top-three defense in the NFL, and the offense just comes along for the ride. That makes fantasy football evaluation difficult for them, as outside of Nico Collins, nobody is really excited about a fantasy football prospect on this team. Let’s take a look at the 2026 Houston Texans’ fantasy football sleeper, undervalued, and overvalued players!
Sleeper: Jayden Higgins, Wide Receiver (WR53, Pick 129 OVR)
The former second pick in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, Higgins is the second-best pass catcher on the Texans, behind star wide receiver Nico Collins. He finished his rookie campaign with a respectable 41/525 line on 68 targets, kicking in six touchdowns for good measure. He didn’t hit the ground running like other rookies, but he could be poised for a second-year breakout. The Texans let Christian Kirk walk, Tank Dell is likely a shell of what he was after his severe leg injury, and Higgins is a step up from Jaylin Noel. The only player to potentially steal targets from Higgins is tight end Dalton Schultz, who isn’t really much of a threat. He’s a bit under the radar as I write this, but the drum beat is growing.
Undervalued: David Montgomery, Running Back (RB21, Pick 50 OVR)
David Montgomery is my king this season for two very real reasons: Joe Mixon and the Houston Texans’ defense. Some might want to call David Montgomery “aggressively average” at this point in his career, but I would also like to posit that Joe Mixon was also “aggressively average” the last time we saw him (2024), and he put up an RB9 season thanks to his volume (13th in carries, 15th in targets) while being 30th in yards per touch, 45th in true yards per carry, and 26th in yards created per touch. Flip this to David Montgomery last season, who didn’t get a lot of volume, but was 19th in yards per touch, 32nd in true yards per carry, and 29th in yards created per touch. What you see is a bell cow-style individual, very similar to Joe Mixon in the past, and this is the type of player that (despite being aggressively average) can put up a ton of fantasy points on volume alone.
How does the Texans’ defense play into this? Well, this will put the Texans on the field more, and with better field position. The Texans’ defense last season ranked third in yards per drive allowed (25.4), and knocked the least time off the clock on defense (2:35 per drive). They also allowed the lowest scoring rate per drive. All this adds up to an offense that will be on the field a lot while nursing leads in the second half, and that’s all David Montgomery time, baby.
Overvalued: Houston D/ST (D/ST1, Pick 218 OVR)
This is your annual reminder never to take the first D/ST off the board. You’re far better off streaming the position during the season than being the first one to take a defense in your draft.
