Texans To Sign WRs Zay Jones, Sterling Shepard

Jones and Shepard joined Josh Reynolds at a Texans receiver workout today, and Houston will move forward with two of those veterans. Shepard, 33, is entering his 11th NFL season while Jones, 31, is going into a 10th campaign. The latter is coming off an Achilles tear sustained in November.

These additions come as a result of the ACL tear Jayden Higgins suffered this week. Houston placed Higgins on IR today. A report earlier this afternoon indicated the Texans had made trade calls to gauge WR availability. While the door may not be closed there, the team will take the free agency route for now.

Shepard and Jones will vie for depth roles in a receiving corps housing Nico Collins, Jaylin Noel and Tank Dell. The Texans also have contract-year wideout Xavier Hutchinson, veteran Justin Watson, and they used a sixth-round pick on Lewis Bond this year. Either being a practice squad stash would not surprise, either, at this stage of their careers.

This continues a late-career spurt for Shepard, who suffered a season-ending injury in 2022 before being an afterthought with the 2023 Giants. After tallying 154 receiving yards in three games to open the 2022 season, Shepard sustained an Achilles tear to continue a run of injuries in New York. The Giants still re-signed him in 2023 but used him sparingly. The former second-round pick caught 10 passes for 57 yards in 15 games that year, ending an eight-year Big Apple stay.

A conversation with college teammate Baker Mayfield led Shepard to Tampa in 2024, and he spent the past two seasons with the Buccaneers. The Oklahoma product played 27 Bucs games from 2024-25, catching 71 passes for 782 yards and two touchdowns. Shepard became a key presence for a Bucs team that lost Chris Godwin midway through the 2024 season and then played without just about all their top wideouts for extended stretches in 2025.

This marks a return to the AFC South for Jones, who was tied to an $8MM-per-year Jaguars deal for two seasons. Originally a Bills second-rounder in 2017, Jones finished out that contract with the Raiders before a 2021 resurgence keyed the Jags’ three-year, $24MM offer.

Jones played well for Jacksonville’s 2022 playoff team, tallying a career-high 823 receiving yards before catching a touchdown pass in the team’s historic comeback win over the Chargers. A November 2023 arrest on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge occurred during an injury-marred season, and the Jags cut bait after a 2024 draft that brought Brian Thomas Jr. to Duval County.

Jones caught on with the Cardinals soon after and re-signed with Arizona in 2025. The 6-foot-2 wideout made minimal contributions with the Cardinals, totaling only 20 receptions for 267 yards in 19 games with the team.

Neither player looks likely to be a true regular in Houston, especially if Dell is ready to go by Week 1. But both vets supply depth for a team that keeps seeing key wide receiver pieces sustain major injuries. Shepard spent time on the Bucs’ practice squad; a spot on the Texans’ P-squad — as veteran stashes — will likely be viable paths for both players here. Teams must pare their rosters to 53 players by 5pm CT August 30. P-squads will be assembled August 31.