Running Back · Houston Texans

Woody Marks

No. 4 · 2nd season

Woody Marks ran more than anyone on the Texans last year. Now he's learning to catch.

He wasn't supposed to be the answer. Rookie running backs rarely are, especially in a league where every team has a plan until the plan breaks.

Marks came in and just kept working. By the end of his first season, he had carried the ball more than any other Houston Texans running back — 196 times — and outgained everyone else on the ground too. That kind of workload, in a first year, says something about what a team saw in him when the depth chart got tested.

Now the Texans are asking for more. Marks is putting time into learning how to run routes — the patterns a running back runs into the open field to get open as a receiver. It's a different skill set, and one that typically opens the door to a much bigger role in an offense.

If he becomes the kind of back who can both run and catch, he's not a contingency plan anymore. He's a centerpiece.

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