Veteran running back Mark Ingram has agreed to a one-year deal with the Houston Texans worth up to $3 million, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Ingram had spent the past two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, serving as a major part of their NFL-leading 14-2 team in 2019, a campaign during which he contributed 1,018 yards on the ground, scored 15 touchdowns from scrimmage, and made the Pro Bowl.
His role was severely diminished in 2020, however, with Gus Johnson and rookie JK Dobbins overtaking the 31-year-old in the Ravens top-ranked backfield. Ingram was a healthy scratch for four of Baltimore’s final five games, including both postseason contests, and was eventually released later in January.
The former Heisman Trophy-winner at Alabama will now join a Texans team in extreme flux after saying goodbye to face-of-the-franchise JJ Watt while also continuing to deal with a franchise quarterback in Deshaun Watson who doesn’t want to be there.
Alongside Ingram in the Houston backfield will be David Johnson, who arrived in Houston last offseason in a much-maligned trade that shipped DeAndre Hopkins out. Johnson has agreed to restructure his contract to remain with the team, though third-down back Duke Johnson was given his walking papers a few weeks ago.
While Ingram’s old mates in Baltimore are currently sitting in fifth on 888sport’s odds table with +1,200 odds to win the Super Bowl, his new team is sitting in dead last on the same table, offering gargantuan +12,500 NFL odds that are definitely a stay away, if that wasn’t already clear.
Ingram will arrive in Houston with 10 years of NFL experience and three Pro Bowl selections to his name. The Alabama alumnus actually topped 1,000 rush yards in three of four years before he tailed off in the 2020 season as the Ravens went younger at running back. He has amassed 7,324 rushing yards and 72 total touchdowns in his decade in the league.
The former first round pick spent his first eight seasons with the New Orleans Saints before spending the last two in Baltimore, where he made a lasting impression in 2019 with not just his Pro Bowl play but also a legendary postgame press conference during which he exclaimed ‘Big Truss’ as he introduced and made the case for his teammate Lamar Jackson to win MVP, which Jackson eventually did at the end of that season.
