Texans seek to fill Lamar Miller's "heavy defeat"

Lamar Miller's 2019 campaign ended with the Houston Texans winning the injured reserve on Monday.

"The tests showed that Lamar had torn his ACL," said head coach Bill O'Brien. "Difficult loss. Obviously, a guy we will miss in the meeting room, we will miss training and obviously, we will miss him on the playing field. "

The eight-year-old was injured in the knee late in the season at Saturday's pre-season game in Dallas. In the second half of the game, Miller was hit in the knee by Cowboys defensive lineman Maliek Collins. After being evaluated by the trainers in the field, Miller was transported to the locker room and did not return.

In the absence of Miller, the Texans currently have six halves in the lineup for their final pre-season game on Thursday: Duke Johnson, Damarea Crockett, Josh Ferguson, Karan Higdon Jr., Buddy Howell and Taiwan Jones, as well as Rookie Cullen Gillaspia. Johnson, a third-round pick of 2015, was acquired from Cleveland on August 8th.

"I think, if you look at our situation regarding backtracking, we have a good situation," said O. Brien. "I think the addition of Duke Johnson was a good thing, he was good in the meeting room, in practice, professional attitude.Taiwan Jones, this addition to the offseason was good." Buddy Howell has been a very stable guy for us in the special teams, Higdon and Crockett are fighting, we have Gillaspia, so we'll see what happens, anything can happen. "

Miller, who missed just two games in 2018, had 973 rushing yards in 210 races and 25 receptions for 163 yards, scoring six touchdowns (five in race and one in receiving) last year. He was selected for his first career in the Pro Bowl. Miller is second in the NFL in rushing yards since 2014 with 4,905 yards behind LeSean McCoy.