Bleacher Report suggests Texans give up on this recent draft pick

The career of Houston Texans running back Dameon Pierce has certainly been up and down.

It began with Pierce showing a fierce running style in training camp and the preseason, justifying fans' hype for the 2022 fourth-round pick. He looked like he could be the future at the position, but inconsistencies started to rear their head and Pierce fell out of favor a bit.

Fast forward to last season, and Devin Singletary went from backup to starter, and ran very well for the Texans offense. Pierce was relegated to a reserve role.

Because of that, among other reasons, Bleacher Report's Ryan Fowler believes the Texans should try and trade Pierce this preseason. Fowler notes the presence of Dare Ogunbowale and rookie Jawhar Jordan, along with the newly-signed Joe Mixon, as reasons to be OK with, essentially, giving up on Pierce.

Trading Pierce may not make as much sense as another current trade idea between Houston and Kansas City, but let's get into why the former Florida Gator should stick around.

Does it make sense for the Texans to trade Dameon Pierce?

No, trading Pierce has never made sense. Not then, and not now.

First off, let's establish the fact that Mixon is, indeed, a very good player. And, if the average fan simply looked up his box score stats over the last few years, checking out games played and yearly totals, it would appear that he's stayed relatively healthy.

However, what you can't see is how many games Mixon has suited up either dealing with an injury or games that he's come in and out of with nagging injuries.

In 2023, Mixon was on the injury report once for a chest issue. In 2022, he dealt with a concussion. In 2021, Mixon appeared for two separate reasons: an ankle injury and an illness. In 2020, he appeared on the injury report several times for both a foot and shin injury; separate issues. So, while he's missed 14 games since the start of the 2020 season, Mixon has been impacted in even more contests due to nagging issues.

Back to Pierce.

Fowler would end his argument with the statement: "Pierce is a talented player, and his game would surely draw interest from a long list of teams in search of more pop in the backfield."

That's all you need to know. That's it.

The Texans know Pierce. He knows the Texans. He's familiar with the offense and has shown explosive, aggressive running in the past. If Mixon were to go down, Houston isn't ready to lean on Dare Ogunbowale or rookie sixth rounder Jawhar Jordan just yet, at least not in a full capacity.

Pierce is absolutely, without a doubt, a valuable piece to this team. His yards per carry might not show it, but the talent is still there for the third-year pro. Houston needs to keep him on board rather than flipping him for what would likely be a sixth or seventh-round pick.

He's far more valuable than that, period.