Who Should I Start? Devaughn Vele or Jayden Higgins

Friday, December 19, 2:45 PM

New Orleans Saints wide receiver Devaughn Vele (shoulder) has been placed on injured reserve, ending his season before the team's Week 16 matchup with the Jets. Vele suffered the season-ending shoulder injury during the fourth quarter of a Week 15 win over the Panthers and had already been ruled out for Sunday. Vele had established a strong rapport with rookie quarterback Tyler Shough, regularly seeing target shares in the high-teens to mid-20s, and his absence should see tight end Juwan Johnson step in as the team's number two pass-catching option behind Chris Olave. Olave, who has seen double-digit targets only once since Shough took over as starter, but has found the endzone in three of his last five games, could once again see the type of heavy volume that defined his early season and is RotoBaller's WR11 for Week 16.

Wednesday, February 4, 4:17 PM

The Houston Texans selected wide receiver Jayden Higgins in the second round in 2025 out of Iowa State, and he finished his rookie season in the NFL with 41 receptions on 68 targets for 525 yards and six touchdowns in 17 regular-season contests. Higgins was the Texans' third leading receiver behind Nico Collins and tight end Dalton Schultz. In the team's two playoff games, the 23-year-old caught nine of his 14 targets for 98 yards. Higgins' success going forward will be tied to whether quarterback C.J. Stroud can bounce back following a couple of disappointing campaigns after his outstanding rookie year, but either way, he should be Houston's No. 2 behind Collins with Christian Kirk hitting free agency this March. Higgins has the size (6-foot-4, 215 pounds) and speed to take a big step forward with more targets in his sophomore season.