The Houston Texans drafted fourth-round running back Dameon Pierce, but they aren’t just going to give the former Florida product the feature back job.
The 5-10, 215-pound rusher has promise, but the Texans are still experimenting with veterans in the backfield. The Texans signed former Indianapolis Colts running back Marlon Mack and still have Rex Burkhead on the roster.
Burkhead lead the Texans with 122 carries for 427 yards and three touchdowns last season, and he sees Pierce attempting to learn as much as he can about the game.
“He’s really trying to learn as quickly as he can,” Burkhead told reporters after training camp practice at Houston Methodist Training Center. “I think the biggest thing for him, as a rookie you’re going to make mistakes. That’s just how it is. If you have one one day, try not to do it the next day, and he’s done a great job of that. Just learning from things that maybe he didn’t have all the way down the day before and coming back and showing, ‘Okay. I’ve got it down now. This is how to do it,’ and asking questions.”
Learning from one’s mistakes is part of the process of starting out successfully in the NFL. However, Pierce isn’t simply keeping the perspective on himself; he is trying to ascertain why Burkhead focuses on the fine details he does in order to give himself an edge.
“He’s come up to me on little details, too, which is huge,” said Burkhead. “Usually if you’re getting questioned about the big things, it’s like, ‘Okay, yeah,. There’s that.’ But when you’re asking some small details on routes and just run techniques or whatever, that’s when you know someone is really locking in and picking it up quickly.”
Pierce had a 5.7 yards per carry and scored nine rushing touchdowns with the Gators last year despite having only 100 carries on the season.
