Fantasy Football Impact: Patriots Trade Kayshon Boutte to Texans

The injury bug has been busy this NFL preseason, and the aftermath of its impact continued Monday when the Patriots traded wide receiver Kayshon Boutte to the Texans to help replace injured wideout Jayden Higgins. Let’s take a look at the trade and its fantasy football impact.

2026 Fantasy Football Draft Advice: Patriots Trade Kayshon Boutte to Texans

First, let’s take a look at the news.

Kayshon Boutte traded to Texans

The Patriots are sending WR Kayshon Boutte to the Texans in exchange for safety Jaylen Reed and a 2028 seventh-round pick.

Fantasy Impact

Boutte has had his name in trade rumors for most of the offseason following the Patriots offseason additions of AJ Brown and Romeo Doubs. Boutte will get a fresh start in a wide open wide receiver room with Houston. He should compete for a role as a field stretcher for the Texans.
– Ari Koslow

Fantasy Football Outlook for Kayshon Boutte

Kayshon Boutte lands with the Houston Texans and should serve as their field stretcher and the wide receiver who is playing in two-wide sets with Nico Collins. Last year, Boutte was the WR47 in fantasy points per game, with five games in weekly fantasy scoring as a top-24 option. Among 109 qualifying receivers, he ranked 48th in separation score and 44th in route win rate (per Fantasy Points Data). Among that same sample of receivers, he ranked fourth in aDOT (17.5) while drawing a 10.9% target share with 39.4 receiving yards per game, 1.56 yards per route run, a 14% first-read share, and 0.076 first downs per route run. Boutte will be a matchup-dependent flex this season, likely filling a similar role with Houston, but there’s upside for more in 2026 if C.J. Stroud can recapture any of his rookie season magic.
– Derek Brown

Fantasy Football Impact On Other Players

Dalton Schultz had 82 catches for 777 yards and three touchdowns in 2025 to finish TE11 in half-point PPR fantasy scoring. The modest TD total limited his fantasy impact, but Schultz finished tied with Jake Ferguson for third among tight ends in receptions behind only Trey McBride and Kyle Pitts. Schultz finished sixth among TEs in receiving yards. With the Texans’ good young corps, it initially seemed as if Schultz might be hard-pressed to match the career-high 106 targets he saw last season. But with Jayden Higgins, Houston’s No. 2 receiver, tearing his ACL in mid-August, Schultz figures to once again be an important cog in the Texans’ passing game. The Texans acquired WR Kayshon Boutte from the Patriots after the Higgins injury, but Boutte has mostly been a vertical receiver in the NFL. Consider Schultz a midrange TE2 for fantasy.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Over the last two years, C.J. Stroud has been unable to match the splendor of his 2023 rookie season. Shoddy offensive line play was undoubtedly part of the problem in 2024. The Texans’ O-line outperformed expectations in 2025, but Stroud was a league-average starter at best. As a rookie, Stroud threw for 4,108 yards and 23 touchdowns, with only five interceptions. He averaged 273.2 passing yards per game and 8.2 yards per pass attempt. In 31 starts over the last two seasons, Stroud has averaged 218.3 passing yards per game and 7.1 yards per attempt. His yearly finishes in fantasy points per game among QBs with at least nine starts: QB7, QB26, QB20. The Texans have worked on upgrading Stroud’s offensive line, but Houston’s pass-catching corps took a hit in mid-August with the loss of promising second-year WR Jayden Higgins to a torn ACL. The Texans tried to fill the void by acquiring WR Kayshon Boutte from the Patriots. With Houston having one of the NFL’s top defenses, Stroud probably won’t be presented with a lot of pass-happy game scripts. Consider Stroud a low-end QB2 or high-end QB3 for fantasy.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

With Jayden Higgins out for the year with a torn ACL, one of the players who could be asked to step up and into a bigger role in 2026 is Jaylin Noel. Noel played 67.2% of his snaps from the slot last year, so the worry is how much he’ll be on the field this season, but Houston was fifth in usage of 11 personnel (65.9%), so he could see a near full-time workload. Houston’s move to acquire Kayshon Boutte does make it an almost certainty that Noel won’t be on the field in two-wide receiver sets. Boutte will likely be that guy opposite Nico Collins in wide receiver formations. Last year, in the four games (yes, it’s a small sample), Noel played at least 33% of the snaps (76 routes); he had insane per-route efficiency with a 25% target-per-route run rate, 2.46 yards per route run, and 0.132 first downs per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). Am I expecting him to put up those types of numbers on a per-route basis over the length of a full season? Hell no, but this is just to illustrate the talent that Noel has when he actually saw the field with regularity last year. Noel is a late-round dart that could hit in a big way in 2026.
– Derek Brown

Kyle Williams‘ rookie season was essentially a red-shirt season. With Kayshon Boutte traded to the Houston Texans, Williams will likely take over his field-stretching role, which could lead to some nice matchup-dependent flex weeks. Last year, Williams had only a 27.6% route share while producing a 12% target-per-route run rate with 1.24 yards per route run (18.2 aDOT, per Fantasy Points Data). Williams has been a beast during the preseason with 3.47 yards per route run (20.4 aDOT, per PFF). Unless there are injuries to the New England receiving depth chart, I don’t expect Williams to have a high-volume role, but he could easily be a nice bye-week flex at multiple spots in the 2026 season or a last-round best-ball pick that pays off.
– Derek Brown

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