When the Houston Texans were finalizing their 53-man roster on Aug. 31, they didn’t decide they just needed a veteran player to man the top of the running back depth chart.
According to coach Bill O’Brien, great research went into trading offensive lineman Martinas Rankin to the Kansas City Chiefs for running back Carlos Hyde, including going back to Hyde’s playing days in the Big Ten for Ohio State from 2010-13, which overlapped with O’Brien’s tenure at Penn State from 2012-13.
O’Brien told reporters Friday the acquisition of Hyde was a “research project.”
“I think it’s more of a research project where I coached against him when I was at Penn State, he was at Ohio State, so I had knowledge of him at Ohio State,” O’Brien said. “Then our scouting department had knowledge of him when they scouted him coming out of college and then our pro scouts had knowledge of him as to where he had been in Jacksonville, Kansas City, and what he had done.”
Through 68 career games with 47 starts, Hyde rushed 879 times for 3,550 yard and 27 touchdowns. But the Texans weren’t looking at stats and analytics as much as they were looking at the film to put together a comprehensive look on what they would be getting out of a player who would turn 29 on Sept. 20.
“We watch tape, we try to figure out as much as we can with all the intel that we gather and then we try to make the best decision for the team,” O’Brien said. “We felt like he was a guy that could fit for us and I think he has fit in so far. Obviously, everybody’s got to get better, but he’s fit in pretty well.”
Hyde has produced 250 yards and a touchdown on 52 carries for the Texans through all four of his starts. Houston and the rushing attack will have to help quarterback Deshaun Watson present a balanced attack as they face the Atlanta Falcons Sunday at noon at NRG Stadium.
