Greetings from the off-season rumor mill, where anything is possible and football enthusiasts like us will talk about anything and everything we think will help our team.
This time, Saquon Barkley, a reliable veteran tailback, is joining the Houston Texans to improve their ground game. If the G-Men don’t apply another franchise tag to the running back, he may enter the free agency market this spring. Barkley is valued at an estimated $9.9 million by Spotrac, which is reasonable for a team with cap space of around $60 million.
The five-year veteran would get along well with current RB1 Devin Singletary. He was selected second overall in 2018 out of Penn State. After that, this pair would relieve some of the strain on C.J. Stroud, the new quarterback for the team, enabling offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik to expand his playbook even further in 2024. If the offensive line becomes and remains healthy, that is.
These days, a general manager’s dream team is the Houston Texans. With a young quarterback in C.J. Stroud, who just won a playoff game in his debut season and has four more years left on his cost-controlled contract, they have an exciting team.
This will enable them to build a club that head coach DeMeco Ryans can lead to many postseason runs while being ambitious over the next few offseasons.
Entering the 2024 offseason, the Texans are awash in cash. Right now, with over $66 million in cap space, they are ranked fourth in the league. To put things in perspective, the three clubs facing them—the Tennessee Titans, the Washington Commanders, and the New England Patriots—all fired their head coaches during the summer.
The Texans have a lot of pieces in place to have one of the top offenses in the NFL the next year. Tank Dell and Nico Collins were excellent receivers for Stroud when healthy, and Devin Singletary amassed 898 rushing yards—a career high—behind the offensive line.
Barkley should find Houston to be a desirable destination because to Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik. He interviewed for head coaching positions with five teams this summer because of his remarkable ascent to his current position.
With Barkley in the backfield, the Texans would have a formidable dual threat that might help them build on their unexpected 2023 success.
Which burly running back—Derrick Henry included—would be a better fit for the Texans? Alternatively, would General Manager Nick Caserio be better suited searching for a ground game hammer in the draft pool? Would Caserio be willing to take a chance on Texas Longhorns running back Jonathan Brooks, given that running backs are selecting slightly later in the draft each year? Trey Benson of the Florida State Seminoles appears to be a good choice in case Brooks is unavailable.
