The Houston Texans need help running the football.
It is no secret that the ground game was far and away the team’s biggest deficiency during the Tim Kelly era. The addition of David Johnson in 2020 nor the departure of former coach Bill O’Brien was able to generate any traction.
The Texans finished dead last in the NFL with 1,422 rushing yards in 2021, only 83.6 yards per game. Rex Burkhead, a late add to the roster in August, was the team’s leading rusher with 122 carries for 427 yards. There was not a single back on the roster that averaged over 3.5 yards per carry. Burkhead, Johnson, Phillip Lindsay, Royce Freeman — it didn’t matter. Houston had no rushing game.
If the team is going to aid the development of second year quarterback Davis Mills and remove the entire offensive burden from the passing game, this is an area that must be improved upon in 2022. New offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton will likely provide some welcome changes from a Kelly run scheme that couldn’t have been any worse at generating running lanes. Additionally, Houston is expected to make investments towards their interior offensive line that should pay immediate dividends.
None of that, of course, matters without some new candidates running the football.
With limited cap space and more pressing needs across the roster, it is in the best interest of the Texans to invest in cheap veteran options in addition to potentially drafting a rookie. The free agent market boasts fantasy-friendly names like Melvin Gordon and Leonard Fournette in addition to a host of younger backs who never quite thrived the way they were projected too.
What free agent running back do I write on today? #WeAreTexans
— John Crumpler (@TexansDoc) February 19, 2022
At the intersection of less expensive and seeking opportunity, a familiar face is available for the Texans: former Indianapolis Colt Marlon Mack.
Mack was a fourth-round draft pick from the University of South Florida in 2017 and ran for 908 and 1,091 yards during his second and third years with the Colts. He averaged 4.4 and 4.7 yards per carry during those campaigns with 18 total touchdowns.
Despite his success, Indianapolis still traded up early into the second round of the 2020 draft to select Jonathan Taylor. The rest is history.
An ugly Achilles tear during the first game of the 2020 season threw off Mack’s fourth year in the league and he wasn’t able to find his way back into the rotation after signing a one-year deal last summer. Mack was a healthy scratch in 11 of Indianapolis’ 17 games during Taylor’s historic 2021 campaign.
Kevin Hickey, editor of the Colts Wire, was optimistic that this was largely due to circumstance rather than any indictment on Macks’ talent level after the injury.
“We got a solid look at him (Mack) during the preseason and while he may not be *as* explosive, he still looked like a running back who can produce at a similar efficiency as he did early on in his career with the Colts. He was a healthy scratch for the majority of the season, mostly due to the historic season of Jonathan Taylor and the fact that Mack doesn’t contribute on special teams, which is a key requirement for the RB3 on the Colts roster.”
It was well documented that Mack was seeking a trade during the 2021 season, but Indianapolis wasn’t able to find him one. It left the running back essentially paid to take a season off and stay prepared incase Taylor was injured due to his inability to contribute on special teams. Now, Mack is set to enter the market and will be looking for rosters with opportunity.
From NFL Now: A look at some of the more interesting trade names still available — Marlon Mack and Darius Slayton. pic.twitter.com/BEp8VLeJka
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 2, 2021
In Houston, Mack would immediately be the best downhill runner on the roster and offer a between-the-tackles. He would fit into nearly any scheme that Hamilton may dream up and offer a kind of runner that Houston hasn’t had in years. As an additional rotational piece, his assistance in the run game could go a long way towards helping Davis Mills.
Mack may not be the kind of workhorse back that many are clamoring for, it may best to look towards the draft or other options for that. However, at his likely contract price of less than $2 million on the season, he is the type of player that would immediately make the roster better and could help contribute towards winning.
For Mack, Houston represents a backfield where his talent could give him the potential volume to reproduce at a level more similar to his 2018 and 2019 campaigns in Indianapolis. A strong campaign with the Texans would set him up well to seek the first large payday of his career.
It would be fun to take a page from the Tennessee Titans’ playbook and recruit a player from a cross-division rival. Houston will need all the juice they can muster to compete with an extremely talented roster in Indianapolis and having an inspired Mack on the roster would certainly help.
