The Texans love older running backs. The latest addition of a player closing in on 30 closes the door on their existing stable of seasoned tailbacks.
The Texans traded for Joe Mixon in 2024. Last year, Houston added Nick Chubb as a free agent. The official arrival of Lions running back David Montgomery next Wednesday via trade necessarily means that neither Mixon nor Chubb will return in 2026.
Chubb rushed for 506 yards in 15 games (nine starts) for the Texans in 2025. Mixon spent all of last season on the non-football injury list; the nature and extent of his foot injury was one of the biggest mysteries of the year.
Chubb is a free agent. Mixon undoubtedly will be released. Both will be available to any other team.
There’s simply no room for either of them on the Houston depth chart, given that Montgomery and Woody Marks will be leading the way at the running back position. The third-string running back almost always plays special teams, too. That’s something very few older running backs ever do.
Chubb is 30. Mixon turns 30 in July. Their only path back to Houston would entail neither signing elsewhere and an injury opening the door to a reunion.
They’ll pay Montgomery $6 million this year. He’s due to make $9 million in 2027. He’ll be the older option for at least one year if not two, while Marks (who had 703 rushing yards as a rookie) continues to develop.
The decision to agree to a trade for Montgomery, on the first business day after the end of the Scouting Combine, suggests that the Texans explored the potential free-agent running back options and opted for a sure thing at a relatively low cost, in comparison to what the best available running backs will get.
Of course, the Texans also had to give up multiple assets (headlined by a fourth-round pick) to make the deal. And they had no qualms about doing so for a guy with seven years of experience and who turns 29 in June.
But that’s their approach. One older running back, one younger one. Along with significant annual overhaul of the offensive line, which is a curious strategy to say the least.
Some of the moves that will be made over the next week will be surprising. Some will not be.
In the “not surprising” category comes the news, via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, that the Texans will release veteran safety Jimmie Ward.
Ward, 34, didn’t play in 2025, due to both placement on the Commissioner Exempt list and, after that, the Physically Unable to Perform list. He suffered a foot injury late in the 2024 season.
The move, per Schefter, creates $750,000 in net cap space.
Picked in the first round of the 2014 draft by the 49ers, Ward spent nine seasons in San Francisco. He signed with the Texans in 2023, when 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans became the head coach of the Texans.
Ward appeared in 10 regular-season games with 10 starts in 2023, and 10 regular-season games with 10 starts in 2024.
The Lions agreed to trade running back David Montgomery to the Texans today, and Montgomery is saying farewell to his home for the last three years.
“It’s hard to find the right words for a goodbye like this,” Montgomery wrote on social media. “Detroit has never just been a location to me -- it’s been a community. And you all have been more than supporters or a team. You’ve been steady hands, loud cheers, honest feedback, and quiet strength when I needed it most. You believed in me when things were uncertain. You stood beside me through challenges. You showed up -- consistently, fiercely, unapologetically. There is something special about the people here. The resilience. The loyalty. The way you don’t just support someone -- you ride with them. I have felt that from each of you, and I will never take that lightly. This isn’t goodbye because something ended. It’s goodbye because something grew. And growth sometimes calls us forward. Please know this: Everything I do next carries a piece of Detroit with it.”
In his three seasons with the Lions, Montgomery totaled 562 carries for 2,506 yards and 33 touchdowns, plus 76 catches for 650 receiving yards. But after being a starter his first two years, last season Montgomery’s role in the offense was reduced, as he became a backup to Jahmyr Gibbs.
The Texans gave up offensive lineman Juice Scruggs, a 2026 fourth-round draft pick and a 2027 seventh-round pick for Montgomery. Paying that price and paying Montgomery $6 million this season shows the Texans view Montgomery as a starter. Going to a team where he’ll be the No. 1 running back may make this a trade that benefits everyone involved.
Running back David Montgomery publicly denied the report that he wanted out of Detroit.
Well, he’s now headed elsewhere anyway.
According to multiple reports, the Lions have agreed to trade Montgomery to the Texans.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, the Lions will receive a Houston fourth-round pick, offensive lineman Juice Scruggs, and a seventh-round pick in exchange for Montgomery.
Montgomery, 28, saw his role in Detroit’s offense reduced in 2025 as Jahmyr Gibbs continued to ascend at running back. He finished the season with 716 yards rushing with eight touchdowns, also catching 24 passes for 192 yards.
Lions General Manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell expressed a desire to keep Montgomery around at the scouting combine last week. But that plan has apparently changed with the Texans’ offer.
Woody Marks led the Texans last season with 703 yards rushing with Nick Chubb finishing second with 506 yards on the ground. Joe Mixon did not play after sitting out the season with an injury. It was reported last week that Mixon is expected to be released with a failed physical designation.
The Montgomery trade cannot become official until the start of the new league year on March 11.
The Texans scoffed at chatter about a trade involving quarterback C.J. Stroud last week, but they have agreed to move another member of their roster once the new league year opens next month.
According to multiple reports, the Texans have agreed to trade offensive lineman Tytus Howard to the Browns. Cleveland will send a fifth-round pick to Houston in return for the veteran blocker.
Howard is heading into the final year of his current contract and was set to make $18 million in salary and bonuses with a cap number of nearly $28 million. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that he will get a three-year, $63 million extension as part of the trade.
Howard started at left guard in Houston last season and played right tackle for the Texans earlier in his career. The Browns have six offensive linemen on track for free agency, so the Howard trade represents a big move to begin remaking the offensive line in Cleveland.
