Nico Collins starred on a state-championship team at Clay-Chalkville, and he thinks his NFL team is title-ready, too.

“It’s there,” Collins said about the Houston Texans. “Just knocking on the door.”

In Collins’ first two NFL seasons, the Texans totaled seven victories. In each of the past two seasons, Houston has captured the AFC South and won a first-round playoff game before losing on the road to the No. 1 team in the AFC playoffs.

“It’s more room for improvement,” Collins said during an appearance on FanDuel TV’s “Up and Adams.” “I feel like there’s more that’s left on the table. I feel like everybody hasn’t hit that peak yet. You know, I feel like that. And that’s the most exciting part about it, and I feel like we’re just getting started, and I can’t wait for next year and get back on the field with the guys, man. You know, I miss it.”

Collins would include himself among the players who haven’t peaked.

In 2023, Collins had 80 receptions for 1,297 yards and eight touchdowns in 15 regular-season games.

In 2024, Collins led the NFL with 567 receiving yards through the first five weeks of the season. He had 74 more yards than the second-place receiver – the Cincinnati Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase, who went on to lead the NFL with 1,708 receiving yards this season.

A hamstring injury caused Collins to miss the Texans’ sixth through 10th games. Despite the five-game absence, Collins still posted another 1,000-yard season with 68 receptions for 1,006 yards and seven touchdowns.

In the first round of the AFC playoffs, Collins set a franchise record for postseason receiving yards with 122 on seven catches. He also scored a touchdown in Houston’s 32-12 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers and Collins’ college coach at Michigan, Jim Harbaugh.

“It’s a blessing,” Collins said. “I feel like it’s knocking on the surface for me. I got to continue to grow, continue to have fun playing the game. I feel like my journey is just getting started, having fun with it and just enjoying life.”

The Texans also dealt with season-ending injuries to receivers Tank Dell and Stefon Diggs in 2024.

In his second season, Dell, who started his college career at Alabama A&M, tore the anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and posterior cruciate ligament, dislocated the patella and damaged the meniscus in his left knee in Houston’s 15th game. He’s not expected to be ready for the 2025 season.

The Texans lost Diggs to a torn ACL in the eighth game of the season. The four-time Pro Bowler will become a free agent on March 12 unless Houston re-signs him before then. Collins hopes the Texans will do that.

“Having Stef in the room, it was big for me because I’m learning from him,” Collins said. “I feel like for me, I’m still learning. I’m still finding ways to improve on my game, finding ways to go about my business and finding ways I can be better. I feel like in order to do that, you have to be a student of the game and ask guys like Steph and guys that’s been around the game and that’s been successful. So I feel like having Stef in the building, man, having a lot of older vets — you know, I had Brandin Cooks, Chris Conley, Chris Moore, guys like that. So learning from them while I was there, it really, really helped me out till today.”

At Clay-Chalkville, Collins earned Alabama Sports Writers Association first-team All-State recognition as a senior in 2016 after receiving second-team selections in 2014 and 2015.

In 2014, Clay-Chalkville swept through 15 games without a loss, scored at least 35 points in every contest, rocketed to 85 points in its playoff opener against Scottsboro and capped the season with a 36-31 victory over Saraland in the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 6A championship game.

The next season, the Cougars raced through 14 games by scoring at least 38 points in all of them until Spanish Fort defeated Clay-Chalkville 31-28 in the Class 6A title contest.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.