(SportsRadio 610) - The Texans have been an easy team to ignore the past three seasons as a bottom dweller in the NFL.
With the organization's draft capital at a premium the past two off-seasons, general manager Nick Caserio and the Texans have searched for cornerstone pieces to help them emerge out of the darkest time in franchise history.
While many of the Texans picks during the rebuild have left much to be desired to this point, Dameon Pierce, the team's fourth-round pick in 2022 was one of the few bright spots during another self-imposed, dreadful season of football in Houston last season.
The rookie out of Florida burst onto the scene during a week 3 performance against the Los Angeles Chargers, in which he recorded his first 100-yard game, finishing with 131 yards rushing in just 14 carries, including a 75-yard touchdown run.
He showed the Texans and the rest of the league he might've been an absolute steal in the fourth round.
Pierce finished his rookie campaign with 939 yards rushing in just 13 games played. Despite missing the final four games with a high ankle sprain, he still finished inside the top 20 for yards and his 72.2 yards per game was eighth best among qualified backs.
Eagerly awaiting Sunday's opener against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium and hoping to build on an eye-opening rookie season, Pierce and his angry running style hasn't changed, but the way he sees the game now has.
"I never have good intentions running, everybody knows that," Pierce said with a smirk. "Now it's more methodical, I feel like I look at the game more mature. That's just part of my development with coach DB (running backs coach Danny Barrett) and coach Slo (offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik). I'm just looking at the game differently now, more analytically and just trying to see how I can be my best for this team and make plays."
Despite the Texans' troubles putting a healthy offensive line unit together this preseason, they'd be hard pressed to be much worse than they have the previous three seasons, finishing either 31st or 32nd in the league in rush yards per game during that forgettable stretch.
To make matters more difficult, Pierce and the Texans will be facing off against one of the toughest run defenses the league has had to offer the past two seasons.
Anchored by linebackers Patrick Queen and eventually Roquan Smith, the Ravens held opponents to less than 90 yards rushing last season, the third fewest in the league.
"It's an opportunity to see how far we've come as a run offense," Pierce said. "There's no two better guys in the game than those two together as a duo."
Since the Ravens addition of Smith last October, that duo became one of the most effective units at stopping the run and hassling quarterbacks in the league, combining for 11 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and 7 quarterback hits the final nine games of the season.
While the Texans' offensive line will have their hands full on Sunday protecting rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud and opening run lanes, Pierce thinks he can help matters with the way he's learned to view and play the game as he calls it, "more analytically."
"This is going to sound so stupid, but it's small, it's something that I've seen me do," Pierce explained. "I never look at the sticks when I run, never."
Piece said he used the preseason to glance over at the first down marker before the next play and would think to himself, "third and four? I can get four yards, I can move the chains."
Simplifying the situation and understanding that he doesn't need to try and reel-off a 75-yard run every carry, has helped him take a more systematic approach to the game.
"Little stuff like that, situational football, just being calm under pressure. That's really what it is, just being prepared mentally as well as physically," Pierce said. "I was more focused on physical last year, like, I'm gonna run through everybody. Now, it's more like, OK, I'm gonna run to this shade, let me let my guy slide over, let me help my lineman set up this block."
In a more patient approach, Pierce acknowledged that the game has slowed down for him as he enters his second season in the NFL, but said it's been a process getting to that point.
"Learning how to play the game and learning how to manipulate this offense to my game," Pierce said. "Slowik gives us free reign, 'even though it's designed to go here, just play with your eyes,' and that's what I've been doing lately and I've been getting comfortable in that system."
