The Houston Texans have shored up the running back stable with veterans throughout free agency.
The latest addition is former Indianapolis Colts running back Marlon Mack, who saw his role as the feature back diminish due to injuries and the advent of 2020 second-rounder Jonathan Taylor.
Houston also has Royce Freeman, Scottie Phillips, Darius Anderson, Dare Ogunbowale, and Rex Burkhead on the roster.
The Texans need to ensure they are simply putting the finishing touches on the roster as they come down the homestretch with the NFL draft at the end of the month, not trying to find discount veterans to carry a running game.
Part of Houston’s problem even going back to the final two seasons of the Bill O’Brien era was using veterans to carry the rock. In 2019, Carlos Hyde excelled as a quick fill-in for an injured Lamar Miller, who blew out his ACL in the third preseason game at the Dallas Cowboys. The former San Francisco 49ers 2014 second-round pick tallied 1,070 rushing yards, his lone 1,000-yard season of his career.
However, the Texans didn’t get anywhere close in 2020 with David Johnson as the lead back, and the committee of Johnson, Mark Ingram, Phillip Lindsay, Burkhead, and Freeman generated 3.4 yards per carry, the lowest in the NFL.
Organizationally the Texans have had an aversion to taking running backs high in the draft. Not since 2017 with Texas’ D’Onta Foreman in the third round has Houston spent a top-100 pick on a running back.
The 2022 NFL draft offers decent talent at running back with Michigan State’s Kenneth Walker, Georgia’s Zamir White, and Iowa State’s Breece Hall. The Texans don’t need to use a first or even second at running back, but one of their two third-rounders (Nos. 67 and 80) should be considered to use on a young running back.
