Texans move away from Scottie Phillips

The Houston Texans parted ways with a running back on Thursday.

When the Houston Texans signed running back Scottie Phillips back in 2020 as a member of their practice squad, and eventually on the main roster, one had hopes he could do some damage when given the opportunity.

That never exactly happened, as multiple coaching changes and injuries hampered the career path of Phillips, and on Thursday the Texans finally parted ways with Phillips completely after two seasons with the franchise from the IR list.

Houston basically made that decision earlier this offseason when he was waived from the 90-man roster, but after landing on the IR list for Houston, it still wasn’t meant to be for Phillips and Houston.

Phillips in his two seasons with the Texans played in 11 games, with eight games played in 2020 and three games this past season. Phillips had no real offensive numbers, with eight career carries for 22 yards and one touchdown, that coming in 2021.

The running back in two seasons totaled 2.8 yards per carry, plus he had three career receptions on four targets.

Special teams is where Phillips had some success with five kick returns in 2020 for 96 yards, including a career-best 26-yard return. On special teams, in ’20 Phillips played 109 snaps (48-percent of special teams snaps) and 21 snaps in ’21, for a career total of 130 special teams snaps.

Texans: In college, Phillips had some solid numbers

We all know collegiate numbers don’t turn into pro success, but it is still interesting to see Phillips’ numbers at Ole Miss because in two seasons there he played in 20 games, totaling 1,470 yards with 17 touchdowns and a career yards per carry of 5.3 ypc.

Also at Ole Miss (2018-19), Phillips caught 18 passes for 182 yards and three touchdowns. In all, he played 296 plays on offense, finishing with 1,652 total yards from scrimmage with 20 total touchdowns.

Phillips had a tough start to begin with as he came to the NFL undrafted, but the Texans saw something in him to give the running back two years of opportunity, but ultimately Phillips will have to look elsewhere for success in the NFL or in another football league possibly as he recovers from his injuries.

This season, the Texans will be looking to Marlon Mack, Rex Burkhead, Dameon Pierce, Dare Ogunbowale, Royce Freeman and Darius Anderson to battle for roster spots and make the rushing game better than it was a season ago.

Phillips worked hard for Houston, and hopefully he finds success in the NFL eventually because he had potential with the Texans, but things didn’t turn out how they needed to for either party involved.