The Value of Things: Key Player of the Texans – Dameon Pierce

I’m back from a long vacation. It was partly a low-budget version of the Dark Retreat. Instead of completely disappearing like Aaron Rodgers, I just lost the information without cell reception. So my life was pretty much on pause, but a quick look at the site and other news shows that not much has changed since I left. So we return to our Key Player series unabated.

There’s no doubt that the Houston Texans are now modeling themselves after the San Francisco 49ers. I can’t think of a better organization to emulate right now. Yes, they haven’t won the big game, but they’ve been there twice in the last few years and seem to have a system that’s more replicable than Kansas City’s.

The 49ers rushed for nearly 2,400 yards last year. Christian McCaffrey was certainly responsible for the majority of that, and the Texans can hope that Joe Mixon can be a cheap version of that. In fact, they had two other running backs (Elijah Mitchell and Jordan Mason) who combined for nearly 500 yards and over four yards per carry. Deebo Samuel also helped in the running game, but that’s another topic for another day.

Dameon Pierce didn’t get four yards per carry. He barely got three yards per carry. It wasn’t a good, terrible, very bad season for him. As a teacher, I can relate. I’ve been teaching for 26 years, and there are years where it just works out. Maybe it’s a more challenging group of students. Some years, a pandemic interrupts your year. Other years, it’s a hurricane. Some years, the class schedules just don’t line up. You know what I mean.

Good teachers bounce back. They make adjustments or recharge in the summer and come back fresh. The bad ones don’t teach long. I would assume, of course, that the same thing happens to athletes. It’s hard to say exactly what happened to Pierce last season. I don’t think it was a work ethic issue. He seems to work very hard. There were no injuries to speak of. He just didn’t seem to be able to handle the new offense.

When you factor in Deebo Samuel’s contribution, you can see that the 49ers got around 700 yards from players not named McCaffrey. That’s not an insignificant number. No one is quite sure what the Texans offense will look like with all of these weapons in one place, but it seems pretty obvious that they need more yards and more efficiency in the running game to take the next step.

Pierce has done two things this offseason that are consistent with what we do as educators. The first thing he has done is take advantage of the time off. He seems to have cleared his head and started fresh. He has been revisiting those lesson plans (the playbook) to become more familiar with the offense.

The second thing he’s done is lose some weight. I’m not sure that will turn things around in the end. Was he too slow for the “just cut and go” system? Did he hesitate too long because he wasn’t familiar with the system? These are all excellent questions. It’s also possible that he doesn’t fit into the system, as some have suggested.

The closer you get to a championship match, the less time you spend in training camp looking for starters. These guys are scheduled and they work, but they rarely play during preseason games. Those backup spots become the scene for the drama. Joe Mixon probably won’t carry the ball more than 10 times in total in the four preseason games.

Dameon Pierce is going to be used quite a bit, so we’ll find out pretty early on if he can be the right fit. Hopefully last season was just one bad, terrible, very bad season. If not, then they need to give other guys a chance. This team needs a good backup running back. Most Texans fans are rooting for Pierce.