Analyst Sounds Alarm on Texans' Joe Mixon, Nick Chubb

It's a tough blow for the Texans before the season even starts, keeping the 1,000-yard rusher out of the mix for the foreseeable future, handing the keys to offseason addition Nick Chubb for the time being, with more information to surface closer to Week One

But, even before the Texans were faced with such news regarding Mixon and his health, the consensus around how this backfield would pan out had a few doubters.

Pro Football Focus' Beckett Mesko recently outlined a data-backed take for every team in the NFL leading up to next fantasy season, where for the Texans, the concern was simple: "Fade the Texans' backfield," due to a variety of factors.

"Joe Mixon looks to lead the way in the Texans‘ backfield heading into his age-29 season. He has handled the second-most rushing attempts among active players (1,816, behind Derrick Henry)," Mesko wrote, "Houston also added Woody Marks and Nick Chubb into the equation and lost a number of pieces. There are several question marks on an offensive line that was already poor last season (66.3 PFF overall grade, 26th in NFL).  The newly crowded room, the tread on Mixon’s tires and the offensive line uncertainty should scare you off from taking swings on the Texans' backfield."

Now, already faced with his age of just turning 29 years old, while also combined with his heavy workload from the season prior, the outlook for Mixon has even more concern attached to it, with uncertainty plaguing when he'll truly be ready to suit up for his second season in Houston, and if he'll be at 100%.

From a fantasy perspective, those injury qualms don't quite shape up as favorable to have on anyone's roster.

As for Chubb, while he does have his upside, he also has his own injury worries that have kept him limited for the past couple of seasons, and will be getting his feet wet in a new team and offensive scheme for the first time in his pro career–– making for a difficult situation to approach when trying to find a reliable and steady option in this Texans running back room.

Mixon still has tons of time at his disposal to get his health right before Week One, so it's hard to fully write off his season just yet. But there does remain a fair bit of caution to surround how Houston's run game may develop until his health trends in a positive direction, especially in a fantasy sense.