Houston Texans: 4 free agents who won’t be back in 2022

3. David Johnson, RB

The trade for David Johnson a couple years ago will go down as one of the very worst trades in not only Houston Texans history, but in the history of the NFL. Johnson has underperformed since joining the Texans from the Arizona Cardinals, especially this season.

This season Johnson has 56 carries for 176 yards with zero rushing touchdowns, and even worse, his best rush of the season is 13 yards. Johnson is averaging 3.1 yards per rush and has just five carries that have been for a first down. The one positive for Johnson this season carrying the football is he has just one fumble.

When catching passes from either Tyrod Taylor or Davis Mills this season, in 11 games Johnson has 28 receptions for 214 yards with one touchdown, which came all the way back in Week 1 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Bringing back Johnson for the ’22 season would be a reminder of all that went wrong when he arrived, as that meant DeAndre Hopkins left the franchise. It will be best for Johnson and the Texans to part ways after the ’21 season is finished and both the Texans and the veteran running back can have a fresh start away from each other, because so far this season has been a huge disappointment.