The Underuse of Dameon Pierce Raises Concern

The Houston Texans young, promising running back, Dameon Pierce went into week one being the confirmed starter. But what happened to the running back we heard all about?

The Houston Texans training camp wasn’t anything particularly special. You heard about Davis Mills, Nico Collins, and Brevin Jordan. However, the name that really caught everyone’s attention is running back, Dameon Pierce.

The third-round draft pick from Florida was a risky pick in the third, but has turned out to be a great selection based on what we’ve heard.

After a terrific start to camp, and a strong showing in the pre-season, people had a lot of hope for what was to come in week one against the Colts. The answer- not much.

After hyping him up all training camp and pre-season, Pierce was left in the shadows of Rex Burkhead. Now, to fantasy purposes, that may be understandable given Burkhead is their receiving back. However, I feel it’s safe to say that we were all expecting 20-25 Carries for Pierce. Instead, we got 11.

Burkhead on the other hand finished week one against the Colts with 14 carries on the ground to go along with five receptions.Once again, to reiterate, the receptions don’t surprise me because that’s what the Texans signed him to do. But the fact that he had more attempts on the ground is concerning.

Burkhead, spent many years with the Patriots as part of their running back committee, but never really got the bellcow nod. Maybe now he’s going to come into his own? That’s the crazy part about only one week, it’s easy to read into everything. But it does kind of make you wonder, what is their plan for the coming weeks?

Are they going to let Burkhead have another go this week against Denver? Are they going to mix things up and let Pierce hit the ground running? Or are they going to split? It’s all very interesting but the one thing’s for sure, the lack of production on Pierce’s limited carries last week is concerning.