Houston Texans: Troymaine Pope released and more roster moves

The weekend has been busy for the Houston Texans with cuts, signing and re-signing of players for the upcoming 2018 season, as Week 1 is this upcoming Sunday.

There have been more than a few roster moves for the Houston Texans this weekend as rosters have been trimmed to 53 players, plus there are players being signed to the practice squad and players being added to the roster via the waiver wire.

On Sunday, the Texans have added running back Buddy Howell (Florida Atlantic), rookie cornerback Natrell Jamerson (Wisconsin) and rookie safety A.J. Moore (Ole Miss). In making those moves, the Texans also released three players who initially made the 53-man roster in safety Kurtis Drummond, running back Troymaine Pope and tight end MyCole Pruitt.

Also on Sunday, there were eight players selected to the practice squad, with those players being Davin Bellamy (outside linebacker), Andre Chachere (cornerback), Kyle Fuller (offensive line), Roderick Johnson (offensive tackle), Darius Kilgo (nose tackle), Matt Lengel (tight end), Chad Slade (offensive line) and Jester Weah (wide receiver).

Of all the roster moves made on Sunday, the one for which many seem to hold the Texans accountable is the release of Pope, as many felt he deserved to be on the 53-man roster, especially with D’Onta Foreman being placed on the PUP list for the next six weeks.

Pope never played a regular-season down for the Texans, but in 2016 he played in regular-season games with the New York Jets and the Seattle Seahawks. His combined totals for those two teams was 12 rushes for 44 yards, averaging 3.7 yards per carry. Pope also has one career reception for five yards. This preseason, Pope only played in one game, where in Week 4 of the preseason he had five carries for 21 yards, with one of his carries being 11 yards. Pope finished the preseason with 4.2 yards per carry.

In adding Howell, the Texans get a player whom the Miami Dolphins released during their 53-man cuts. In the Dolphins’ preseason finale, Howell had three carries for seven yards and one touchdown. He also made three receptions for 26 yards and one touchdown, with one of his three receptions going for 21 yards.

For what it is worth, the Texans will be making another running back decision in six weeks, as they’ll have to decide which of their reserve running backs will be taken off the roster when it is time for Foreman to return to the lineup as he continues his recovery from injury.

These moves for depth on the roster make sense for the Texans, but at running back, did they make the correct decision in waiving Pope and adding Howell? Neither has proven much in their short time in the NFL, and now Howell has a lot to prove before Foreman returns to make the decision tougher for the Texans to keep him on their roster in some way in six short weeks.