Hyde was brought in from the Kansas City Chiefs for offensive lineman Martinas Rankin, a third-round pick by the Texans in 2018 who they were likely to cut ties with one way or another.
Houston needed a running back. Lamar Miller had been injured in the preseason. Duke Johnson had been traded from the Cleveland Browns.
The Texans still had little to no depth at the position.
“We had some guys on our team already, and then Kansas City approached us about that trade, so we thought about it,” O’Brien said Wednesday. “We researched it and it took a while to figure it out, but I felt like that was something that could help our team. Carlos has come in here and he runs hard. Obviously, I was familiar with him, coming from Ohio State when I was at Penn State. Coached against him. He's done a good job. He's done a real good job for us and hopefully it can continue.”
Hyde has 461 rushing yards on 11 carries, good for 4.2 yards an attempt. The advanced numbers show he’s averaging 2 yards before contact and another 2 yards after contact per attempt.
Johnson has far fewer carries, but he averages 6.2 rushing yards an attempt for a nice change of pace.
The combination of Hyde and Johnson has worked out for the Texans.
“Yeah, I think so,” O’Brien said. “For us, I think there's a lot of improvement in all areas that we can make, but I think so far those guys have done a good job of coming in here and learning our system and trying to do things the way we ask them to do them. They're very smart players, they're really good in the locker room, they've been good additions to our team.”