There is one curious aspect to the Houston Texans’ roster.
In an age where the NFL is more favorable to pass-heavy offenses, the Texans have staked their success on the run game, and are carrying five running backs on the roster in Mark Ingram, Phillip Lindsay, David Johnson, Rex Burkhead, and Scottie Phillips.
It would be like a modern office insisting that all physical documents be copied by mimeograph rather than even scanning them with a smart phone.
For general manager Nick Caserio, the heaviness at running back is more about roster construction getting out of cut day, and working with the fluidity of NFL rosters at this particular juncture of the season.
“One thing that you have to factor in is when you release a player off the roster and you put them on a waiver wire, you’re exposing them and you may or may not be able to get that player back,” Caserio said. “I wouldn’t say that’s always the case of why you keep a player on the roster. I would say other players earned the opportunity to be on the roster with their performance. You’re looking at both the short term and maybe thinking about a year from now.”
Caserio did make a humorous remark that the Texans “can’t put five running backs on the field unless we’re going to run the wishbone like Oklahoma did.”
Said Caserio: “Everyone thinks we are, but we’re not. You can only take so many to a game, so it’s about how you keep your depth on the roster, do you carry it off the roster, do you put it on the practice squad. That’s probably more the thought process than we want 26 running backs on the team.”
What is also curious about the Texans having five running backs on the active roster is they only have three tight ends in Jordan Akins, Pharaoh Brown, and rookie Brevin Jordan. Not even combo fullback-tight end Paul Quessenberry made the final roster, although he has been stashed on the practice squad along with fellow tight end Antony Auclair.