Noah Brown‘s Texans debut included three receptions, but the career-long Texas-based wideout will be shut down for a while. The Texans placed him on IR on Wednesday.
Hassan Ridgeway joins Brown on Houston’s IR list. The veteran defensive tackle, who followed DeMeco Ryans from San Francisco, suffered a calf injury in Week 1. A groin issue will send Brown to IR, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets.
This is familiar territory for Ridgeway, who finished last season on IR. The 49ers had used their eight injury activations, leaving Ridgeway on IR with a pectoral strain. Due to the NFL’s adjusted IR setup, neither Ridgeway nor Brown can return before Week 6.
After spending six seasons with the Cowboys, Brown signed a one-year deal worth $2.25MM to switch Texas teams in March. Houston gave Ridgeway a one-year, $3.25MM accord to join Jimmie Ward as a 49ers defender following Ryans. Both players worked as backups in the Texans’ season-opening loss to the Ravens. Ridgeway played 15 defensive snaps, while Brown saw extensive time on offense, logging 52 snaps. The latter caught three passes for 20 yards in C.J. Stroud‘s debut.
The Texans were without John Metchie to start their season as well. Returning after a leukemia diagnosis kept him off the field as a rookie, Metchie sustained a hamstring injury while preparing to debut. The Texans have Nico Collins, Robert Woods and rookies Tank Dell and Xavier Hutchinson as healthy options at receiver.
In addition to the IR moves, the Texans received a scare in their secondary Sunday. A collision with Lamar Jackson led to second-year safety Jalen Pitre being hospitalized with a bruised lung, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero tweets. While the 2022 second-round pick was coughing up blood at one point, he has since been released from the hospital, per Wilson and Pelissero.