The Houston Texans offseason can't be overhyped enough. While we acknowledge that you don't win a Super Bowl in the spring, the moves made this past offseason did set the table for the Texans to eat well this season. The arrivals of Danielle Hunter and Stefon Diggs will set up the offense and defense well, but it was the acquisition of Joe Mixon that may matter the most. We don't mean to say that Mixon is better, but the expectations for the former Cincinnati Bengals running back is all over the place.
Some still see him as a top-five running back, if he ever truly was, and in the Texans' offense, those same people believe he'll have a near career season. Others, myself included, believe Mixon is a more lateral move from last year's starter Devin Singletary. If not a slight step backward.
Singletary went to the New York Giants in the offseason with the hopes of replacing Saquon Barkley, though that's a monumental task for anyone to do, let alone a man who's had one good year to his name. So when the two teams meet on Saturday in the Texans' third preseason game, it'll be interesting to see how each running back does.
Mixon, who's expected to make his preseason debut against the New York Giants, has huge expectations to live up to. Even if not everyone believes he's a 1,500-yard back, he still has to surpass the production Singletary produced last year. He nearly had 1,000 yards rushing and only started about half of the games in 2023.
For Singletary, the level of expectation is much lower. Some outlets believe he's the worst starting running back in the NFL, a perception he can help rip apart when he steps on the field to face his former team the Houston Texans.
The course of the season won't be dramatically affected if everything goes according to plan. This will likely be the last and only game that Singletary and Mixon play in before next week's final preseason finale. So unless someone gets hurt, the outcome of this game won't dramatically affect either man going forward, but it may give us a taste of what to expect.
Is Mixon the star we're told he still is? Was Singletary the worst starting running back in the league? It seems unlikely either claim is completely true but we'll start to get a sense come Saturday.
