Ravens vs Texans: Houston banged up at receiver (again)

The Houston Texans are dealing with multiple injuries as they come into Baltimore to face the Ravens in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs.

On Monday, the Texans placed wide receiver Noah Brown on injured reserve, ending his season. Brown played in 10 games this year while battling various injuries, and finished the year with 33 catches for 567 yards.

The Texans are already down one receiver as Tank Dell was lost for the season with a broken leg at the beginning of December. Veteran Robert Woods was limited in practice last week but was able to play in the Wild Card game.

Nico Collins was fully healthy in the contest, catching six balls for 96 yards and a touchdown. John Metchie saw the most saps of any Houston receiver (35), largely because they called off the dogs, but he had just 16 receptions in the regular season. Third behind Collins and Metchie was Xavier Hutchinson, who caught just eight passes in 2023. With Woods potentially limited alongside Brown and Dell done for the season, the Texans will be relying on inexperienced players as the boundary depth options.

Heading into their Wild Card game against the Cleveland Browns, the Texans had nine players on the injury report including Brown and Woods. Veteran defensive end Jerry Hughes was the only one to miss the game.

The pass rush duo of Will Anderson and Jonathan Greenard were questionable with ankle injuries, but after limited practices on Thursday, both suited up. Anderson, Greenard and Hughes are incredibly important to what Houston likes doing to protect their back end, so monitoring how they practice this week is vital.

Linebacker Denzel Perryman injured his ribs against the Browns, but is expected to play against the Ravens.

We’ll know more later on Tuesday as the Texans have their first practice of the week and will have to share details about their injury status.