With David Montgomery leading, the Texans aren't done revamping their backfield, eyeing draft talent for a potent run game.
The Houston Texans had clear goals when entering the 2026 offseason: improve the running game and the offensive line as a whole. General Manager Nick Caserio has done a great job of doing that, and he has certainly taken steps in the right direction. The franchise has added talent and experience to the offensive line with players like Braden Smith and Wyatt Teller, and the addition of David Montgomery to the backfield is also exciting.
Houston's backfield was a bit of a mystery heading into the 2025 season. Joe Mixon had a bizarre injury that seemed to be fairly secretive, but he never wound up seeing the field during the season. Woody Marks wound up being the main name in the backfield, while Nick Chubb also contributed. Chubb has certainly lost a step since his peak days with the Cleveland Browns, but he did his best to help the Texans win some games.
Houston's running game needed to improve, which is a big reason the franchise parted ways with Mixon and acquired Montgomery from the Detroit Lions in a trade. Montgomery and Marks will now lead the way in the backfield, with Montgomery likely being the main bell-cow back. Matt Miller of ESPN does not think Houston is satisified with the running back room quite yet, as he thinks the franchise will go back to the position in the 2026 NFL Draft. In his full, seven-round mock draft that dropped on Monday, the analyst had the Texans selecting Nicholas Singleton out of Penn State in the fourth round of the event.
Singleton has been one of the more popular college running backs in recent years, but Penn State had a down year in 2025. He burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2022, and he eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards in a season twice during his college career. He has had some injury trouble as of late; it was reported that he broke a bone in his foot during a Senior Bowl practice, and that injury required surgery.
Regardless of that, Miller still expects him to go in the fourth round. He is a versatile back with special teams experience and can also be a weapon catching the ball out of the backfield, having caught over 100 passes during his college career. If he is brought in to Houston, a potential position battle could occur between Marks and Singleton for the role of being the second running back on the depth chart.