The Floor and Ceiling of the Texans’ Rushing Attack

Sometimes, trying to put the final pieces together to a championship roster can take the team’s identity into unexpected places. The high flying Kansas City Chiefs offense that led to the rise of Patrick Mahomes ultimately found more championships as a station-to-station offense. The defending champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, excavated their way to the top of the heap focusing less on points and more on defense…and, y’know, a healthy spoonful of Saquon Barkely every single game of the season. In their desperation to just reach the summit, the Buffalo Bills have revamped their highly productive, Josh Allen-led offenses no less than three times. Sometimes, that “last piece to the puzzle” ends up altering the entire perspective of  the puzzle itself, and with the amount of turnover that has occurred on the Texans’ offense since September 2024, there’s plenty of new pieces coming in with a chance to shake things up.

Houston’s offensive line is the elephant in the room when discussing changes to the Texans’ roster since 2024, but it doesn’t stop there. The receiving room has absorbed veterans Christian Kirk, Justin Watson, and Braxton Berrios along with rookie draftees Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel. In fact, the only two healthy wide receivers currently on the roster who were Texans players in 2024 are Nico Collins and Xavier Hutchinson. These two position groups have been the preseason drama many fans were anticipating, but there’s another position on offense that I’d argue offers even more intrigue: running back.

Current Texans running back Joe Mixon, once a staple on the Cincinnati Bengals’ offense, is still in pro-bowl form and the undaunted starter on this team, but the quality of the depth behind him has exploded in potential after this offseason. Mixon’s backups for his first season in Houston were Dameon Pierce, Dare Ogunbowale, and Cam Akers (until he was traded to the Minnesota Vikings midseason), who were serviceable and occasionally excellent in their limited action last year. But in 2025, I believe the additions of Nick Chubb and rookie back Woody Marks can push this position group to the next level, and they could ultimately be the missing puzzle pieces the offense was looking for, vaulting Houston into championship contention.

Although, anticipating a Super Bowl-caliber rushing offense this season is a recipe for disappointment. Despite what my current playthrough of Madden 26 on rookie difficulty would lead you to believe, the Texans offensive line this year will leave much to be desired. With the massive overhaul they’ve undertaken at that position, there is no way the Texans will have taken care of that problem overnight. The running backs may play great in 2025, but their impact will be determined by that enigma of a line in front of them. So, with that being said, what is the floor of this 2025 rushing attack? What is an example of the worst they could do? How about an image: 

THE FLOOR: THE 2023 NEW ORLEANS SAINTS

In the same way that one or two players on a roster can be a catalyst for extraordinary improvement, those same players can be also be a cause for team-wide degradation if they fail to perform to expectations. In 2023, New Orleans Saints star running back Alvin Kamara had one of those “underwhelming” seasons, and changed everything about the team. It’s difficult to call that season “underwhelming” since he finished with 1,160 yards from scrimmage, but seeing that was nearly a full 200 yards less than the second-worst season of his career, it’s definitely not what the Saints were expecting. Pair that with an even more disappointing showing from free agent running back Jamaal Williams, who only amounted to 306 rushing yards that year, and you’ve got one of the least efficient rushing offenses in 2023. There is still plenty of debate to go around about whether or not this lackluster ground game was caused by the running backs or the Saints’ offensive line, who had warts of their own along the interior group. But, regardless of who was at fault, this element of offense was not as deadly as New Orleans fans hoped it would be.

The Saints finished the 2023 season with just 1,742 rushing yards at 3.6 yards per carry, which put more pressure on their new quarterback, Derek Carr, during his first season in the Big Easy. More pressure on Carr doesn’t usually yield good results, and as such, New Orleans lost six of eight one-possession games that year and finished just outside of the playoffs at 9-8. It’s hard to imagine the Houston Texans are on the doorstep of a derailed season like this, but if Mixon and/or Chubb were to lose a step or end up on IR, Houston’s rushing attack would become a major question mark. Would the Texans be able to survive without their starting tailbacks? Well, thanks to Woody Marks and Dameon Pierce, their floor is probably a little higher than the 2023 Saints, but not by much.

In as many one-score games as they were in, these small demerits to New Orleans’ team ultimately kept them out of the playoffs. Do these issues of an underwhelming rushing attack or mediocre run blocking that New Orleans faced in ‘23 remind you of another team? Maybe…last year’s Texans squad? The gap between these two teams is probably far narrower than we’d like to admit, and if these new linemen aren’t able to mold into a formidable force in time, we could find Houston in a similar hole yet again in 2025. Considering the amount of turnover that position group went through recently, these upcoming games could get grizzly if the new guards can’t meet the moment. New linemen Laken Tomlinson, Ed Ingram, and Jake Andrews were brought to Houston because of their experience in opening holes, but none have inspired enough confidence to stay on their original teams.

All of those similarities to the 2023 Saints may put you on edge, but it’s important to remember that this is just what I’d expect the floor of the rushing attack to be. Thankfully, the Texans have a quarterback like CJ Stroud under center, who’s capable of lifting the offense around his right arm when duty calls. In his two years in the NFL, Stroud has already had to orchestrate numerous fourth-quarter comebacks, so he would be capable of doing so again if need be.

Of course, relying on Stroud to bail the team out is far from the plans general manager Nick Caserio has for this season. In fact, throughout his five years in Houston, Caserio has tried time and time again to rebuild the tailback position, with mixed results. In 2022, it looked as though he had found his diamond in the rough when the aforementioned Dameon Pierce fell to 107th overall and proceeded to rush for nearly 1,000 yards in his rookie year, but after two straight seasons of underwhelming production, his fresh shine has now faded. Caserio countered this development with a splash signing in the 2024 offseason when he traded for Joe Mixon, and Mixon made it look like Houston’s best front-office decision of the year by rushing for over 1,000 yards and becoming the first Texans running back to make the pro bowl since Lamar Miller in 2018. Now, with that in consideration, imagine the potential of Mixon paired with a healthy Nick Chubb, rounded out with a third-down scatback like Woody Marks! We’re only three years removed from Chubb’s best rushing season of his career at 1,525 yards, if he could get even half of that total in 2025 as a backup to Mixon, then the Texans would have one of the best rushing attacks in the AFC! 

Okay, this may sound like effusive praise for a pair of backup running backs that probably won’t absorb than 200 snaps in the regular season, but I want to give you an image: the 2020 Cleveland Browns:

THE CEILING: THE 2020 CLEVELAND BROWNS

In that beast of a year 2020, the NFL season marched onward through a roaring pandemic, and, as with many other things that year, things got a little weird. The woebegone Browns caught a sudden case of competency and hit their stride as an NFL team for the first time in years, exploding onto the scene as one of the AFC’s very best teams of the 2020 season. Largely led by the deadly pairing of Nick Chubb and tailback Kareem Hunt, the Browns smashed through defense after defense, combining for a total of 1,908 rushing yards, 454 receiving yards, and 23 touchdowns! Cleveland’s rushing offense ranked third in the NFL that year, and they rode it to an 11-5 finish and their first playoff win in 24 years. 

This may not be the Nick Chubb of yore, especially if his performance in training camp is as good as it gets, but his preseason action against the Carolina Panthers revealed that he should not be completely written off. Can he reach the same highs as he did while on the Browns? Well, both Mixon and Chubb are missing one very important element to their offense that the 2020 Browns had in spades: a great offensive line.

Browns 2020 Offensive Line:

• RT:  Jack Conklin – 5th season (1st with Browns), 999 snaps, 84.3 PFF (82.5 pblk, 78.7 rblk), 2 sacks, 11 hurries, 2 penalties

• RG: Wyatt Teller – 3rd season (2nd with Browns), 694 snaps, 92.7 PFF (62.9 pblk, 93.6 rblk), 3 sacks, 12 hurries, 5 penalties

• C: J. C. Tretter – 7th season (4th with Browns), 1,061 snaps, 77.3 PFF (84.9 pblk, 71.6 rblk), 1 sack, 5 hurries, 4 penalties

• LG: Joel Bitonio – 7th season (all with Browns), 1,061 snaps, 84.6 PFF (85.5 pblk, 80.9 rblk), 1 sack, 12 hurries, 4 penalties

• LT: Jedrick Wills Jr. – 1st season (rookie), 957 snaps, 61.5 PFF (79.4 pblk, 50.3 rblk), 4 sacks, 9 hurries, 11 penalties

The country, nay, the world was not prepared for the amount of earth that would be moved by the Cleveland Browns during the pandemic NFL season. This was one of the very best offensive lines in recent NFL history, complete with a pro bowler (Bitonio), an all-pro (Conklin), and one of the healthiest starting lineups during what may have been the most injury-laden NFL season ever. Behind this juggernaut of a line, tailback duo Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt evolved into the best running back duo in the NFL, practically unbeatable once their team had the lead. 

We know Joe Mixon would be able to succeed in this kind of offense, but without an all-star cast of linemen in front of him, production won’t come as easily. The 2025 Houston Texans will never be able to emulate such a dominant rushing attack with their hodge podge of free agents and a rookie left tackle. All projected starters on Houston’s line have had great individual seasons in the past, but asking four new starters to all gel together in their first training camp on the same team? That’s some high aspirations, but their starting lineups’ performance in the preseason gives me reason to believe that they might be able to pull it off. If they do, the ceiling of this rushing attack will blast off into the stratosphere. With a half-decent offensive line, this new four-headed monster in the backfield consisting of Joe Mixon, Nick Chubb, Dameon Pierce, and Woody Marks, could usher in a new era of smash mouth football in Houston. A Mixon/Chubb one-two punch certainly sounds deadly, and if they’re not enough to get the first down, a third down toss to Marks would probably do the trick. CJ Stroud will barely even need to throw the ball!

Okay, okay. Maybe I’m going a little too far with this potential ceiling, but I just can’t help but get excited when both Chubb and Mixon are on the same team at the same time. As for what the Texans running-game may actually look like in 2025, it will probably be somewhere in between these two extremes. I expect Joe Mixon to be just as efficient this upcoming year as he was last, but Houston’s reputation of having a boom-or-bust rushing attack each game will probably remain intact. If new offensive coordinator Nick Caley and offensive line coach Cole Popovich stay on their toes, they may be able to counter this uneven week-to-week production with some creative play calling focused around Chubb, Pierce, or Marks. But, this is all my personal speculation for an almost completely repurposed rushing attack, so despite my prognostications, the real potential of this new group of players is anyone’s guess. 

So, that being said, what do you think? Will the Texans be able to ride Mixon, Chubb, and the other backs all the way to the promised land, or will the new-look offensive line ultimately end up disappointing everyone? Will Chubb be able to get back to pro-bowl form, or is he the new version of 2020-era David Johnson? Let us know down in the comments below!

GO TEXANS!!!