Statistically, David Montgomery is worse than Nick Chubb was last season.
There's clearly more upside with Woody Marks despite the usage by the coaching staff not showing it.
The Texans had one of the least effective run games last season, averaging 3.9 yards per attempt as a team. They lost Joe Mixon before the season, so they signed Nick Chubb to join fourth-round rookie Marks. Marks slowly but surely took over as the lead back. To help improve the run game this season, the Texans traded for Montgomery. They also completely reworked their offensive line. There were conflicting reports this offseason about how much Montgomery would be a feature back versus a 50-50 split between Montgomery and Marks, and everything in between. Montgomery didn’t play in the preseason, so this game was our first real sign of how the two would be utilized. Montgomery started off dominating snaps, taking 13 of the first 15. The two began a rotation by drive in the middle of the game, with Montgomery handling the fourth, sixth and nearly all of the eighth drive, while Marks oversaw the fifth and seventh. The Texans passed the ball on their final two drives, leading Marks to receive 17 of the final 20 snaps of the game. Montgomery dominated touches at 23 to 10, and a two-to-one touch ratio seems plausible going forward.
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