SPORTS

Houston Texans: Injuries, Inexperience Cloud Running Back Picture

It is not an oxymoron to call the Texans' 2007 season a satisfying disappointment. On the one hand, the team was able to exorcise the memories of David Carr, witness the emergence of the much-maligned Mario Williams as a truly dominant defensive end, and post its first ever non-losing season. On the other, between the 18 players who ended the season on Injured Reserve, the loss of Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson for extended stretches of time, the ineffectiveness of Ahman Green, and the heartbreakingly close losses to Atlanta and Tennessee, there is a disappointing feeling that the team was oh-so-close to putting up 9 or 10 wins and challenging for the playoffs.

With that in mind, the Texans enter training camp this month holding realistic post-season expectations for the first time in franchise history. To reach those expectations, however, Houston will have to answer one very important question before the season kicks off September 7th*who is going to the run the ball?

After paying Ahman Green just under $93,000 for each of his 70 carries last year, the team has little reason to believe that the 31-year-old running back will make it through 2008 unscathed. To hedge their bets, they drafted Steve Slaton out of West Virginia and signed oft-injured former Titan Chris Brown. Also returning are Darius Walker, who averaged 4.6 yards per carry as the team's leading rusher over the last quarter of 2007, and Chris Taylor, the combination running back/fullback who spent all of 2007 on injured reserve. If the Texans maintain the same roster makeup as they have during Kubiak's first two years, two-fifths of this quintet will not make the final roster. Even if Kubiak fudges a bit and keeps four by using Taylor as a fullback, which is at least possible, someone is still going home.

But which one? Green carries the highest price tag, but he's also the most polished runner on the team when healthy and he is the presumptive starter, so he should be safe barring some horrific performance in camp. Kubiak was enamored with Walker at the end of last season and Walker seemed to have the kind of vision necessary to succeed in the new zone blocking system Alex Gibbs has installed this offseason. Slaton was a third-round pick who changes direction very well and who could become a very useful third-down back. Chris Brown is probably the second running back as of today, but who knows if he can maintain that position through camp, especially given how he was unceremoniously run out of Nashville? And if Taylor is not used as a fullback because Kubiak keeps Vonta Leach and Jameel Cook for that job, the picture becomes even murkier, as Taylor has shown flashes of NFL talent sandwiched between his constant injuries.

Of the five, only Slaton and Walker still have the eligibility to be on the practice squad, but that carries the risk of losing those players to other teams. The smartest money is probably on Green, Brown, and Slaton making the squad, Taylor getting cut, and Walker winding up on the practice squad, but no combination here would really be surprising. Besides, with the injury history of Green and Brown, it is highly likely that Taylor would be re-signed or Walker would be brought up to the active roster at some point in 2008 anyway.

In the end, the only certainty at this point is that the Texans know their running game was a big problem last year and are trying everything to fix it. They brought in Alex Gibbs and his storied system, they drafted and traded for the perfect linemen for that system, and they have multiple bodies to throw at the running back position. With a lot of luck, this plan just might work well enough to play into January.

Matt Campbell is a freelance journalist and the creator of atexansblog.com. His work has been featured on NBCSports.com, Deadspin, and Football Outsiders. He can be reached at matt@atexansblog.com

(The Banner, July 7, 2008)