As the Houston Texans prepare for a Week 2 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night, their running back situation is still unclear longterm. Joe Mixon was the primary back last season — and was incredible in that role — but he’s currently sidelined with an ankle/foot injury he suffered during the offseason while he was away from team facilities.
In the meantime, Nick Chubb will be getting the majority of carries in Houston’s rushing attack.
But when will Mixon return to the field? That's where things get interesting. At this point, there’s even been speculation among fans and some analysts on whether he returns at all this season. He was placed on the Reserve/Non-Football Injury (NFI) List before the start of the season, which means he isn’t eligible to return until Week 5 at the earliest.
Houston’s head coach DeMeco Ryans was asked again over the weekend if the team had any updates on Mixon, and his comments were interesting.
“We’re rolling with the guys that are here. That’s the main thing,” the Ryans said over the weekend. “We miss Joe, miss his energy, and his enthusiasm and everything he brought to our team. We continue to press forward and hope he’s doing well.”
Ryans still non-committal on the situation, just like Texans GM Nick Caserio has been to date.
"We take it one day at a time. There's no crystal ball out there," Caserio said late last month. "We build a team and take the information and plan accordingly. So, Joe is not available right now. Whenever he becomes available, we'll talk about it at that point in time."
There’s certainly a level of privacy to the situation, but fans have caught on to the past tense language used when Ryans talked about Mixon over the weekend.
That’s the biggest mystery of this Texans team right now. If Mixon can’t return, is the running back group for Houston good enough to be a Super Bowl team? That’s yet to be seen.