Texans To Sign Mark Ingram

New Texans head coach David Culley made some puzzling comments on Deshaun Watson just now, but the Watson saga isn’t the only order of business the team has going on.

Houston has agreed to sign running back Mark Ingram to a one-year deal, a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Per Schefter, the deal is worth “up to” $3MM, presumably indicating he’ll need to hit some incentives to get that full number. Ingram was cut by the Ravens back in January. Ingram will get a $500K signing bonus, and has $250K incentives for hitting both 750 and 1,000 yards rushing, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle tweets.

The Texans recently cut Duke Johnson while coming to a new agreement with David Johnson, who Ingram will now presumably split carries with. Houston really values their running backs, pulling off several trades for runners in recent years. With a duo of Johnson (29) and now Ingram (31), it won’t exactly be the most youthful backfield in 2021. The 28th overall pick of the 2011 draft, Ingram spent the first eight years of his career with the Saints.

He then spent the past two seasons in Baltimore, and will now head off to Houston for his 11th pro campaign. The 2009 Heisman Trophy winner wasn’t very productive last year, but in 2019 he was a Pro Bowler and rushed for 1,018 yards and ten touchdowns while averaging five yards per attempt.

With the Ravens drafting J.K. Dobbins early last year he fell out of favor in the rotation, but that doesn’t mean he has nothing left to contribute. It’ll be interesting to see what his usage is like next to Johnson.

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