With the NFL regular season coming up, it is time to dust off your fantasy football championship belt and get ready for a brand new draft season.
As the football season gets underway, all eyes are on the Texans, but not for the reasons you may think. Fantasy managers are hopeful for a bounce-back season for C.J. Stroud and have big expectations for wide receiver Nico Collins. Houston added Christian Kirk in the offseason, pairing him and Collins with rookie Jayden Higgins.
The Texans also brought in veteran running back Nick Chubb, who needed a fresh start from the Browns, but he may end up getting more work early in the season than anticipated. Starting running back Joe Mixon is dealing with an injury and could be sidelined for the start of the regular season. This would give an opportunity to Chubb and the others in the running back room.
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Here is who should be the Texans’ starting running back.
Texans RB depth chart
| Position | Player |
| 1 | Joe Mixon |
| 2 | Nick Chubb |
| 3 | Dameon Pierce |
| 4 | Dare Ogunbowale |
Joe Mixon
Mixon is heading into his second season with the Texans. After spending the first seven years with the Bengals, he joined Houston’s backfield in 2024. He played in 14 games and picked up 1,016 yards and 11 touchdowns on 245 carries. Mixon added 309 yards and another score through the air.
He has struggled to stay healthy throughout his career, logging only a full season in 2019 and 2023. Mixon is dealing with foot and ankle injuries in the preseason, and there’s a real chance he’ll be sidelined for Houston’s Week 1 matchup against the Rams. It has caused his ADP to fall, but he is still being drafted as the RB26, a mark that would surely rise if we received good news about when he would return to action.
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Nick Chubb
Chubb spent the first seven seasons of his career with Cleveland. He had developed into one of the best running backs in the league, mixing a blend of speed with unreal power. Chubb tore his ACL in 2023, and he fractured his foot in 2024. Between the two seasons, he played in a combined 10 games.
Coming off another injury, the Browns let Chubb walk in free agency, and he signed with the Texans. It created maybe one of the most injury-prone backfields in the league. Chubb has already suffered a concussion in the preseason, but he figures to be the first man up if Mixon is hurt, if he can stay healthy. With Mixon’s injury projected to be only short-term, Chubb is being drafted as the overall RB45 in half-PPR scoring formats.
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Dameon Pierce
Pierce was a fourth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. He had his breakout season as a rookie and had 939 yards with four touchdowns. Pierce showed in 2023 that it was a fluke season and couldn’t keep the starting gig in the Houston backfield. He finished his second campaign with just 416 yards and two touchdowns, and that dropped even further last year with 293 rushing yards and two scores.
Pierce isn’t expected to factor into the Houston backfield. He could even be a roster cut as the Texans narrow the roster down to 53 players by Week 1. Pierce’s fantasy football average draft position (ADP) is as the RB87, but unless you are in the deepest of leagues or have insanely deep rosters, he won’t come close to being drafted in your leagues.
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Dare Ogunbowale
Ogunbowale will score a random touchdown from time to time, but his contribution for the Texans is more with special teams. Over his three seasons with Houston, he has tallied 270 total rushing yards and one touchdown on the ground. He has even been used as the Texans’ emergency kicker, but he shouldn’t be expected to be fantasy relevant.
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Joe Mixon injury updates
Texans beat reporter Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 Houston gave a pretty detailed report of Mixon’s situation. “Among the things the team is working through is a lingering foot-ankle injury for Pro Bowl running back Joe Mixon, suffered away from the Texans, with him progressing from a walking boot, to wearing a brace to having increased mobility over the summer to, now, still being out indefinitely while rehabbing and navigating a somewhat complicated medical issue. The Texans will take their time with managing his recovery and will not rush him back onto the field after missing the entire offseason and the majority of training camp so far.”
The worry for Mixon in fantasy football is if he hits the PUP list coming out of the preseason. That would make him ineligible for the first four games of the season. That would be a significant enough time away that it would affect how he and Chubb are valued for fantasy football.
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Who is the Texans backup running back?
Chubb is the favorite to be the backup to Mixon. The lone caveat there is that Chubb also needs to be able to stay healthy. If we get to a situation where Chubb and Mixon are both sidelined, Pierce would be the desperation option.
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Where should I draft Joe Mixon in fantasy?
Unless we get a concrete injury answer for Mixon, he should continue being selected as the RB26 in half-PPR scoring. If he is only going to miss one game, you can likely draft him sooner; however, if he lands on the PUP list, you should consider fading him.
Mixon is being drafted 67th overall in drafts. For 12-team leagues, that is the seventh pick in the sixth round. While his injury status remains ambiguous, that feels like a solid range for him. Chubb is being selected as the RB45 with the 136th pick, or the fourth pick in the 11th round of drafts. That feels like great value even if Mixon only misses the opener.
