Noah

Whittington

Whittington is a 24-year-old undrafted free agent rookie. He will likely be given the chance to make a practice squad in Houston or elsewhere. The Texans also waived/released Naquan Jones, Dom Bailey, Jarrett Kingston, Josh Kelly, Kaevon Meriweather, Brandon Codrington, Louis Hansen, Layne Pryor, James Neal III, Treyvhon Saunders, Daniel Sobkowicz, Stephen Hall, Owen Wright, Deuce Vaughn, Caleb Johnson and Eli Cox. They also placed Kyonte Hamilton (knee), Ali Gaye (knee), and Solomon Byrd (ankle) on injured reserve.

Whittington (5’8”/205) is a sixth-year back who started his career at Western Kentucky in 2020. As a sophomore, he posted a 102-619-2 rushing line while averaging an impressive 6.1 YPC, and averaged over 6.0 YPC in three of his seasons, although one was an abbreviated 2023 campaign at Oregon due to a torn ACL. Whittington is a short, compact runner who looks like a bowling ball going through the defense, but he lacks the explosiveness to break to the second level and has an average missed-tackle force rate of 19.1 percent. Whitington never handled a true bell cow workload at Oregon, and profiles as a rotational back. In 44 career games with the Ducks, he averaged just 10.9 touches per game. What value he has in the passing game is more as a blocker than a receiver, as he never totaled more than 169 receiving yards in a season despite finishing his career with 88 receptions. Per Dane Brugler’s The Beast,’ Whitington is described by scouts as an “all-football guy.” He won’t earn a meaningful role as a rookie out of camp, but his willingness to play special teams and ability as a kick returner (19 career kick returns) give him multiple avenues to earn a roster spot.