Nico Collins agreed to an adjusted contract with the Houston Texans on Tuesday that raises and fully guarantees his salaries for 2026 and 2027, a deal that immediately cements his place in the team’s plans.
Under the terms, Collins will receive a $9 million raise in 2026 and an $8 million pay bump in 2027, with both seasons’ salaries now fully guaranteed. The restructure also lifts Collins’s pay to $29 million for this season and to $29.2 million in 2027, and covers at least the next two years of his time in Houston.
The numbers matter because Collins is coming off a career-defining season. In 2025 he played 15 regular-season games and caught 71 of 120 targets for 1,117 yards and six touchdowns — his third straight season with more than 1,000 receiving yards. At 27 years old, he has become the Texans’ primary weapon in the passing game.
Collins has been explicit about his intentions off the field. Recently he said, "I want to spend my entire career with the Texans," words that now carry financial weight as well as sentiment after the guarantees were added to his contract.
The restructure arrives amid clear league interest. Teams around the NFL called the Texans to check on Collins’s availability, but the organization has repeatedly pushed back on any notion of moving him. General Manager Nick Caserio said the team had no interest in trading Collins, and the contract confirms that stance by locking in the receiver for the immediate future.
Context matters here: the revised deal not only raises Collins’s pay but also signals how the Texans view his role relative to their young quarterback. The guarantees and raises underscore Collins’s long-term status as the No. 1 target for C.J. Stroud and remove some of the short-term financial levers that can prompt trade discussions around high-performing receivers.
There is friction beneath the surface. League calls about Collins’s availability show other teams see him as a tradable asset with significant value; the Texans’ public refusal to engage on trades — and now the guaranteed pay — make such moves considerably harder. That tension between market interest and Houston’s resolve is the immediate story line: the money both satisfies Collins and dampens the possibility that a rival will pry him away before 2028.
For Houston the restructure is a forward-looking commitment. It turns performance into security, keeping intact the connection that has produced three consecutive 1,000-yard campaigns and giving C.J. Stroud a dependable top receiving option for the next two seasons. For Collins it translates the verbal pledge he recently made into financial reality.
What happens next is straightforward: Collins will enter the upcoming season with a clear financial and roster position, and the Texans have signaled they will not entertain trade overtures while those guarantees stand. If Collins continues to produce at his recent rate, the deal effectively locks in the core of Houston’s passing attack. That certainty answers the most consequential question now — whether Collins is staying — with two seasons of guaranteed pay and a front-office declaration that he is not going anywhere.
