The Houston Texans signed 31-year-old Pro Bowl running back Mark Ingram to bolster their running back stable.
However, the former 2011 New Orleans Saints first-round pick, who spent the last two seasons of his career with the Baltimore Ravens after his stint in New Orleans, believes he can bring more to the Texans’ locker room than another back who can carry the ball.
“I think you just need to have a group of guys that care about one another, a group of guys who want to hold each other accountable,” Ingram said. “When you line up next to that person in the huddle, you know you can depend on him and you know he’s depending on you and it just has to be that you’re going to go hard and execute your assignments to the best of your ability.
“You don’t have to do anybody else’s assignment. You just have to focus on doing your assignment. You win your job, you win your play, if every person on offense, if every person on defense, if every person on special teams does that, it’ll be a successful play.”
Part of Ingram’s formative years came playing with Super Bowl MVP quarterback Drew Brees. The Saints qualified for the playoffs four times during Ingram’s playing days from 2011-18, going as far as overtime in the 2018 NFC Championship Game.
“If you have 10 people doing it right and one person doing it wrong, we’ve got to hold each other accountable or somebody has to pick up the slack for that,” said Ingram. “Everybody has to have each other’s back. Everyone has to have a bond on and off the field. It’s one that you never want to let your brother down, that you want to win, you want to be great and accomplish something special. You just want to have that mindset, that mentality in the locker room and amongst your team.”
Ingram carried 72 times for 299 yards and two touchdowns in his 11 games with Baltimore last season, starting in nine contests.