Montgomery (groin) won’t play vs. Giants

Per head coach DeMeco Ryans, Montgomery remains week-to-week. He did not practice today and we assume he won’t get on the field in any capacity this week. Woody Marks will make another start. Facing a down-horrific Chargers squad, Marks should finally get going after two underwhelming starts in Montgomery’s absence. He is a locked-in RB2 for Week 9.

Montgomery could still need more time to recover from his Week 5 groin injury. Woody Marks should be expected to start against the Chargers this weekend, at this time. Montgomery technically still has a chance to resume practicing this week, but today likely would have served as the first ramp-up session if he had a good chance of playing.

Montgomery, who missed the Texans’ last two games with his injury, is coming off the team’s Week 8 bye, and there was some hope he might be able to get on the field for Week 9’s game against the Chargers. While that may still be the case, it’s possible we will need to wait until Wednesday, when the team releases its first injury report, to see how Montgomery is trending heading into the weekend. The 29-year-old running back has struggled mightily this season even when healthy, rushing for 138 yards and two touchdowns on 52 carries while averaging a dismal 2.7 YPC. Even if he is active against the Chargers, Montgomery would be hard to trust as anything more than an RB3/Flex play given his performance pre-injury.

Marks was the only game in town for the Texans, playing 54-of-61 snaps, but couldn’t convert the empty-box looks he was getting into real fantasy value. It was actually a reasonable game compared to most Texans box scores this year. Marks looked to have been hurt at one point in the third quarter but was able to escape the tent and go right back to work. Assuming David Montgomery (groin) is back after the bye week, Marks will head back to FLEX work on most fantasy rosters.

Both Pitre and Montgomery, who are week-to-week, have a chance to come back after Houston’s Week 8 bye. They’ve both missed two weeks now with their respective injuries. The latter three are healthy scratches.

Like we said yesterday, Montgomery is still seemingly in the week-to-week camp. Woody Marks and Dare Ogunbowale will likely split backfield touches this week. The Texans used both Marks and Jawhar Jordan last week, but Jordan suffered an injured reserve-worthy injury. Marks should be in starting lineups, but he may be more of a FLEX than a reliable RB2. Ogunbowale is a low-floor PPR dart throw.

We were told early last week that Montgomery is week-to-week. Today’s absence suggests he is still week-to-week and will likely be ruled out again on Friday, though we do not know that for sure. We will provide an update before then if his status changes. In the meantime, Woody Marks will get the start again this week, potentially with less touch competition. Jawhar Jordan totaled 50 yards and a touchdown on seven total touches last week, but was surprisingly placed on injured reserve today. Dare Ogunbowale remains a receiving factor, though.

Marks was mostly bottled up, though he did manage 9/41 in the second half behind a few reasonably big runs to become the first back all year to hit 40 rushing yards against the Jaguars. He played 49-of-63 snaps. The Texans run game is still bad, but against the Giants in Week 7 Marks should probably be on the RB2 line.

Blankenship suffered the concussion near the end of the first half and was carted off with a towel over his head. MJ Stewart took over at safety for a suddenly-ordinary Texans defense.

We already knew that Montgomery was considered week-to-week, so this is unsurprising. Woody Marks will start for however long Montgomery is sidelined. The Jaguars field one of the NFL’s best run defenses, but Marks ceded just one snap to Dare Ogunbowale last week. Theoretically, he should remain in a near-full-time role, elevating him to the RB2/FLEX tier despite the tough matchup.