Houston Texans: D’Onta Foreman will improve rushing game

Houston Texans second-year running back D’Onta Foreman is now able to take part of practices and will eventually improve the rushing attack.

Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien will have the final say when D’Onta Foreman is ready to return, but he is now under the league rules able to return the football field. Foreman was starting to trend in the right direction his first year in the NFL after being drafted with the Texans third round pick in 2017. The Texas city native showed a lot of promise in the limited time he saw the field, he had 78 carries for 327 yards and two touchdowns.

Foreman bruising style of play helped him average an impressive 4.2 yards as a rookie, and a part of his game that didn’t receive much attention coming out of college was his uncanny ability to catch the football out of the backfield. In the small sample size, Foreman had six receptions for 83 receiving yards, and he averaged a respectable 13.8 yards per catch.

Prior to tearing his Achilles, Foreman showed he could run well as a player at his size and showed the ability to impose his will and move defenders with his brute strength. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares when the team decides he is ready to return to the football field, Achilles injuries have the reputation of reducing the athleticism displayed by explosive athletes.

As for improving the offense of the Texans, especially the rushing game, Foreman would be a welcome addition to a running back depth chart that hasn’t done a lot this season. In five games played, Lamar Miller as the starting running back for Houston has rushed for 271 yards on 73 carries (3.7 yards per carry) with no touchdowns. Miller has 79 yards receiving with 10 receptions.

Alfred Blue in six games has 188 yards on 56 carries (3.4 yards per carry) with one touchdown run. Blue Also had 94 yards receiving on 11 receptions. Miller has 79 yards receiving with 10 receptions.

Foreman will have to work diligently and even that could probably still not be enough to return him back to where he was before. He showed just enough of his talent to captivate fans, but the truth is he will have also have to adjust his game after this injury and continue to learn the running back position at the NFL level to keep being productive.

Foreman could very well be a boon to the Texans running game and give quarterback Deshaun Watson another weapon in their red zone offense where they have struggled to move the football and score touchdowns.

Continuing to establish the run game will wear down defenses as the game goes on and allow the Texans to burn minutes off the clock when needed.