{"id":1998,"date":"2026-01-16T05:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/16\/can-texans-wr-christian-kirk-repeat-the-wild-card-explosion\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T20:01:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:01:36","slug":"can-texans-wr-christian-kirk-repeat-the-wild-card-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/16\/can-texans-wr-christian-kirk-repeat-the-wild-card-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Texans WR Christian Kirk repeat the wild card explosion?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>DJ Bien-Aime<span class=\"timestamp \">Jan 15, 2026, 01:31 PM ET<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\">Shut up<\/p>\n<ul>DJ Bien-Aime covers the Houston Texans for ESPN. He joined ESPN in July 2022 after covering the New York Jets for the New York Daily News. He is a former athlete who finished his college career at Louisville. You can catch DJ on ESPN Radio on his show &#8220;Talkin&#8217; Texans.&#8221;<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>HOUSTON &#8212; Wide receiver Christian Kirk stepped up in the Houston Texans&#8217; wildcard win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night, and the team may need him to replicate that performance if fellow receiver Nico Collins is unable to play Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Kirk&#8217;s career-high 144 receiving yards helped power the Texans&#8217; 30-6 victory and set a franchise postseason record, surpassing Collins&#8217; mark in last year&#8217;s wild-card victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very happy for Christian to know the type of person he is,&#8221; Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. &#8220;He&#8217;s one of the best guys in our locker room and works really hard all week. He&#8217;s been grinding all season to be an impact player for us. I&#8217;m glad it worked out for him in one of our biggest games of the year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#8217;s Choice<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/photo\/2026\/0113\/r1600001_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&amp;w=130&amp;h=130&amp;scale=crop&amp;location=center\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/li>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/photo\/2026\/0113\/r1599955_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&amp;w=130&amp;h=130&amp;scale=crop&amp;location=center\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Quarterback CJ Stroud leans on Kirk as he grinds out a rare night in which he threw an interception and lost two fumbles. The three catches were the most in a game since his rookie season.<\/p>\n<p>But Stroud and Kirk were still able to produce three crucial downs, with the Pro Bowl quarterback targeting Kirk nine times for 126 yards and a touchdown. Kirk came up big after Collins and Justin Watson entered the concussion protocol and were ruled out in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think he&#8217;s one of the best in the league,&#8221; Stroud said of Kirk. &#8220;We tried to find ways to get him the ball&#8230;I told him that it is not easy to be in this year. [and] lack of productivity, mathematical intelligence. For him to continue week after week, preparing the way he is, to see it pay off was really a doll. I&#8217;m proud of him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The regular season was up and down for Kirk, whom Houston traded a 2025 seventh-round pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier in the season. Kirk, in his eighth year, finished with 239 yards receiving in the regular season, where he missed four games with a hamstring injury. His 64-yard reception in Week 5 against the Baltimore Ravens was a regular-season high.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Texans WR Nico Collins is inactive today. <\/p>\n<p>That nearly hit the Patriots this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DJ Bien-Aime (@Djbienaime) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Djbienaime\/status\/2011863251894628597?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 15, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Regarding Collins&#8217; availability for Sunday&#8217;s playoff game against the New England Patriots on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ESPN\/ABC), Ryans said, &#8220;We&#8217;ll see how the week goes.&#8221; The Pro Bowl wideout didn&#8217;t practice Wednesday, and the last time he was hit &#8212; in Week 7 against the Seattle Seahawks &#8212; he didn&#8217;t play the following week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re a unit, and any one of us at any time can step up and fill in and make plays when needed,&#8221; Kirk said. &#8220;My number was called, and I&#8217;m glad I was able to step up in those times.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DJ Bien-AimeJan 15, 2026, 01:31 PM ET Shut up DJ Bien-Aime covers the Houston Texans for ESPN. He joined ESPN in July 2022 after covering the New York Jets for the New York Daily News. He is a former athlete who finished his college career at Louisville. You can catch DJ on ESPN Radio on &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions\/2000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}