In my personal history of rooting for the Houston Texans, when it comes to a trend involving their play on the field, I can’t ever remember saying this — there is a negative streak that’s gone on for eight seasons, and for the team to IMPROVE in 2026, this streak MUST continue!
No, you didn’t misread that. A streak that reflects poorly on the Texans’ running game, implying that they are inconsistent and subpar in that area, is a streak that actually needs to continue in 2026. Here it is — the Houston Texans have had a different running back lead the team in carries each of the last eight seasons. Here’s the list:
- 2025 – Woody Marks
- 2024 – Joe Mixon
- 2023 – Devin Singletary
- 2022 – Dameon Pierce
- 2021 – Rex Burkhead
- 2020 – David Johnson
- 2019 – Carlos Hyde
- 2018 – Lamar Miller
We can parse out why exactly a new carries leader occurred or was deemed necessary year to year, but I think we can all agree that good offensive teams typically have a running back that they lean on for at least a few seasons in a row. The Texans have not had that, not even close.
I’ll explain why this steak must continue shortly, but first, let’s go year by year, and look at exactly why this changing of the guard occurred each year. Here we go:
2018 to 2019, LAMAR MILLER to CARLOS HYDE
Miller tore his ACL in Week 3 of the 2019 preseason, and was done for the year before the regular season even started. GM Bill O’Brien made one of his scarce savvy moves, trading tackle Martinas Rankins, who the Texans were about to cut, for Hyde, who went on to eclipse 1,000 yards in 2019.
2019 to 2020, CARLOS HYDE to DAVID JOHNSON
In the 2020 offseason, the Texans made Hyde a two-year, $10 million offer to return. He said “no thanks,” and the Texans then decided to take on David Johnson’s awful contract as part of the DeAndre Hopkins trade. Let’s just move on.
2020 to 2021, DAVID JOHNSON to REX BURKHEAD
In 2021, Johnson remained a Texan, but under the David Culley regime, the team decided to hitch its wagon to Rex Burkhead, who’s never been a featured back in his career. This was the rock bottom season for Texans fans.
2021 to 2022, REX BURKHEAD to DAMEON PIERCE
2022 wasn’t much better overall, but one of the few things to get excited about was rookie RB Dameon Pierce, whose big personality and violent running style was one of the only things that made the Texans worth watching that season. Pierce finished with nearly 1,000 yards rushing, so it looked like, MAYBE they found something at that position….
2022 to 2023, DAMEON PIERCE to DEVIN SINGLETARY
…but alas, the Texans hired DeMeco Ryans as their new head coach, and Ryans brought in Bobby Slowik to implement a Shanahan style run game, with lots of zone running scheme. Pierce took to this offense like a fish to the desert, and soon it was the Devin Singletary Show.
2023 to 2024, DEVIN SINGLETARY to JOE MIXON
Singletary left in free agency after the 2023 season, and the Texans made a trade that made a whole lot of sense. Joe Mixon was about to get cut by the Bengals for cap purposes, so Nick Caserio sent a late round pick to Cincy for Mixon, and immediately extended his contract. MIXON was outstanding in 2024, rushing for over 1,000 yards behind a bad offensive line. Again, like in 2022 with Pierce, the Texans were hopeful they’d found their guy, but…..
2024 to 2025, JOE MIXON to WOODY MARKS
….Mixon suffered some strange lower leg injury that, to this day, the team still can’t explain or refuses to explain. Bottom line was that Mixon issued the whole season, so the team leaned on the rookie Marks to shoulder the load.
That brings us back to my original point of this article. Marks had 196 carries this past season, with the majority of them coming in the second half of the season, when the team was leaning on him heavily. The rookie did yeoman’s work, but he was brought in to be more of a pass catching, third down type back than a bell cow.
Physically, I don’t know if Marks holds up under a full season of that type of workload. It seems like he exited every game from early November on with some type of injury. Ultimately, he’d return to most of those games, but the message is clear — you’ll get a better version of Marks, if you find an actual lead back to shoulder that 15 to 20 carry load that was put on Marks.
Whether it comes in the draft or in free agency (or maybe even a trade), the Texans need a real lead running back, which means for the ninth season in a row, they need someone new to lead the team in carries. The very streak that symbolizes the franchise’s inconsistency at that position needs to extend one more year, for the greater good.
This article appears in Private: Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026.