The Houston Texans’ running back stable has the potential for different faces in 2020 as Lamar Miller and Carlos Hyde are set to enter free agency.
Both Miller was the Texans’ feature back from 2016-18. In 2019, when he tore his ACL in the third preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys, the club traded for Hyde on Aug. 31. The 29-year-old had a 1,000-yard season for Houston and provided arguably an upgrade at the position.
If Houston chooses to let Miller and Hyde go, then a running back in the upcoming NFL Draft they should consider is Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor. According to Pro Football Focus, the 2019 Doak Walker Award winner is 72nd on their big board, which would be early in the third round.
Taylor knocks it out of the park from pretty much every production metric. He averaged over 1,300 yards after contact per season over his career to go along with his average of over 70 broken tackles per year. At the same time, though, he was pounded into the dust with 925 carries in only three years. The worry with Taylor is that even after some added emphasis on him in the Wisconsin passing game this year, his hands still looked pretty rough. In total, he dropped eight passes on 50 career catchable targets and had another drop that didn’t count on a play nullified by penalty. That sort of unreliability could limit his role at the next level.
In the Bill O’Brien era, there have been four running backs taken in the draft: Alfred Blue (2014), Kenny Hilliard (2015), Tyler Ervin (2016), and D’Onta Foreman (2017). O’Brien has shown the propensity to rely more on veteran rushers than rookies or youngsters to carry the rock.
If the Texans want to take Taylor, they would need to grab him with their 57th overall pick, their first pick of the draft and a second-rounder at that. Taylor may not be there for Houston when they pick in the third round.