Former Westminster Christian star Jayden Higgins selected 34th by the Texans in NFL Draft

Jayden Higgins wasn’t even sure if he was going to play football when he got to Miami’s Westminster Christian for his junior year of high school in 2019. He didn’t play football as a sophomore at Miami Gulliver Prep, instead choosing to focus on basketball and he planned to do the same as an upperclassman for the Warriors, but decided a fresh start might be a good time to try football again.

Almost six years later, Higgins is glad he did. Although he flew under the radar at Westminster Christian, Higgins did enough to pick up a handful of FCS scholarship offers and start himself on an unlikely path to Friday, when the Houston Texans selected the wide receiver with the second pick in the second round—No. 34 overall—in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Higgins, 22, is the first former Warrior to ever be picked in the NFL Draft and is now poised to become the first Westminster Christian alumnus to appear in an NFL game.

Although unranked as a recruit, Higgins quietly put up a pair of productive seasons in Miami before heading to college. Higgins piled up 920 receiving yards in his two years as a Warrior, despite his senior season lasting only five games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

From Westminster Christian, Higgins headed to FCS Eastern Kentucky and turned two strong seasons with the Colonels into an opportunity with the Iowa State Cyclones, who almost immediately helped turn Higgins into a star. The 6-foot-4, 214-pound receiver had 53 catches for 983 yards and six touchdowns as a junior to earn a Big Ten Conference honorable mention, then 87 catches for 1,183 yards and nine touchdowns to earn second-team All-Big Ten honors as a senior last year. Despite his limited time at Iowa State, Higgins still finished his career as the seventh-leading receiver in school history.

Higgins is the second South Floridian picked so far in the 2025 Draft. Draft picks from the Miami metropolitan area aren’t unusual, but still Higgins, as his school’s first draft pick, has managed to make history.

This story was originally published April 25, 2025 at 7:23 PM.