The Houston Texans have money to spend this offseason and a name that's now being commonly linked to the Texans in free agency is former second overall pick Saquon Barkley. The running back spent the first five years of his career with the New York Giants and now will be a free agent.
According to league sources, there has been interest from Barkley in joining the Texans this offseason.
"The Texans are also expected to explore additional running back options and there are scenarios where they sign more than one running back. The headliner of the running back free agent class is New York Giants star Saquon Barkley, who has targeted the Texans as his top potential destination and has been communicating with Stroud, per league sources. Barkley could, of course, remain with the Giants potentially as general manager Joe Schoen is holding talks with the former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year’s agent, Edward Berry, of Creative Artists Agency."Aaron Wilson
Texans could add a massive weapon in free agency
The Texans could look to retain Devin Singletary, who stepped up in 2023 when Dameon Price had a bit of a down year. Singletary rushed for just shy of 900 yards and had over 1,000 scrimmage yards on the season.
Barkley, on the other hand, has rushed for over 5,200 yards in five seasons with three seasons going over the 1,000-yard rushing mark. Adding Barkley to the Texans offense would undoubtedly make them a better team and if he's been communicating with C.J. Stroud, clearly things are trending in the right direction.
The Giants spent the second overall pick on Barkley in the 2019 draft in a time where running backs weren't considered to be as valuable as they were two decades ago. Barkley rewarded them with a prolific rookie season where he rushed for 1,307 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Since then, however, Barkley has been dinged up a few times but also had over 1,000 yards rushing in 2019 and 2022. He actually set a career high in rushing yards in 2022 when he rushed for 1,310 yards. The Giants slapped him with the franchise tag last year and could still be interested in keeping him in blue and white, per Aaron Wilson's article linked above.
The Texans will be a popular landing spot this offseason due to having a fun, young quarterback and a head coach that proved he can hang with the best of them. Will Saquon Barkley end up joining the Houston Texans and becoming their starting running back for the next few years? Let's hope so.