The Houston Texans lost Lamar Miller for the season, but head coach Bill O'Brien is still happy with the way the running back room looks.
On Saturday, during the teams third preseason game, Miller suffered a torn ACL and there were questions about where the team would go from there.
The Texans traded for Duke Johnson earlier this offseason, but after him there isn't a ton of NFL experience. There has been chatter that the Texans could make a trade to get another running back, but based on O'Brien's comments, that might not be in the cards. Johnson was brought in to be the teams third-down back, but O'Brien thinks he can be more than that.
Article Continues Below“I wouldn’t call him a third-down back,” O’Brien said, via the Houston Chronicle. “I know that he is a substituted back, so in the past he’s played a lot against sub defenses, but you can see sub defenses on first, second or third downs. I think with us he’ll be used in a lot of different ways, and he’s had a lot of snaps. He’s been out there playing a lot. . . . I don’t think it’ll be him exclusively. We’ve got a lot of other guys at that position that we can mix and match with.”
Buddy Howell, Taiwan Jones, Cullen Gillaspia, Karan Higdon, and Damarea Crockett are also on the teams roster right now and if no trades or signings are made, a couple of those guys are going to need to step up in a big way.