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When the Texans traded for David Montgomery, I heard the same question over and over around Houston. Well, what about Woody Marks? What happens to him now?
Here is my answer, and I feel good about it. I think that trade makes Woody Marks more effective in every phase of what this offense wants to do in 2026. Not less.
He is 5-10, 208, and you do not want the assignment
Marks is wearing No. 4 this season. He is listed at 5-10 and 208 pounds, and he is built the way guys who last a long time in this league are built — compact, low, and absolutely no fun to meet in space. I have been around players like that before. The last thing you want is to find yourself one-on-one trying to bring one of them down. He is not big. He is very hard to get on the ground.
You saw it a season ago against Buffalo, when this offense needed somebody to settle it down. One run of 12 where he cut back into a defensive back and gave him the shoulder — that defender went for a four or five yard ride hanging off his pads. Then a 19-yarder around the right end. Then a fourth-and-one they had to have, out of a look I did not love, and he powered through contact to move the sticks anyway. That is a back doing a job the formation was not helping him do.
The run that showed the year two version
Against Las Vegas in the preseason, he put the whole thing together. A few carries early, a catch out of the backfield, and then a 20-yard touchdown run that was just brilliant. Ed Ingram and Trent Brown collapsed everything down the right side, Marks hit the hole at full speed, broke a tackle, broke another one, and carried somebody into the end zone. He also got a big first down earlier on a run where Cade Stover — wearing a new number of his own this year — threw the kickout block that sprang it.
That is the part people miss when a veteran back arrives. Marks is not competing with Montgomery for the same 20 carries. He is being freed up to be the guy who catches it out of the backfield, who finishes drives, who makes somebody miss on third down.
What it means for this offense
C.J. Stroud dumped one off to him against the Raiders for positive yardage rather than forcing something downfield. That is the whole idea. When your back is a real receiving threat and a real short-yardage answer, the quarterback gets an outlet that is not a wasted play. Add a veteran who can carry the load between the tackles, and you have two backs who make each other's job easier instead of splitting one job in half.
Year two backs take a step or they do not. Everything I saw in August says Woody Marks is taking one.
