Houston Texans Schedule Breakdown 2019 vs. New Orleans Saints

3. Running back goes to the Saints

The running back battle goes to New Orleans Saints duo of Alvin Kamara and Latavius Murray compared to the Texans, who have Lamar Miller and D’Onta Foreman, at least at this point of June in the offseason.

Murray is entering a new role with the Saints after Mark Ingram left the team this offseason, and Foreman for the Texans is taking over the top reserve role at running back, replacing Alfred Blue, whom the Texans didn’t re-sign this offseason.

With the Texans, a big part of their rushing game will come down not to just the running backs, but how the run blocking of the offensive line will do this season compared to 2018 when it wasn’t the greatest. Houston had the worst run blocking offense in the NFL last season, according to Pro Football Focus, at a grade of 43.2 (out of 100), and the Saints were 57.1 for 19th-best in the league.

What makes the Saints so excellent at running back is Kamara not only rushed for 883 yards on 194 carries (14 touchdowns), but he caught 81 passes for 709 yards and four touchdowns in 2018.

For the Texans, Miller needs to get the 2019 season off to a strong start because he’s going to be needed at a higher level than he’s played at in the past couple seasons. Part of that is because of the offensive line play, but Miller needed to create more plays on his own too, as for him this is an important year, being this is the final year of his contract with Houston. Miller rushed for 973 yards on 210 carries in 2018 with five touchdowns. He also had one receiving touchdown.

The Saints seem to have the best rushing unit going into this game, but things change and Foreman is still a mystery, plus it is unknown how well Murray will fit into his new role with the Saints.