Houston Texans Work Out Three Running Backs; What Does That Mean For Andre Brown?

When the Texans signed Andre Brown back in April, many of us assumed the team had found a cheap, veteran replacement for Ben Tate to serve as Arian Foster's primary backup. Throughout his career, Brown has had a hard time staying on the field, but for the veteran's minimum, why not take a calculated risk?

Then a funny thing happened during Saturday night's abomination in the desert. Andre Brown didn't even see the field. Jonathan Grimes did. Alfred Blue did. Even Dennis Johnson got snaps at running back. But not Andre Brown.

When asked about his curious absence from Saturday night's contest, Brown took a rather fatalistic approach:

"You know, it is what it is," the 27-year-old veteran said. "I guess we’ll figure out just like coach answered it."

Head coach Bill O’Brien, when asked about Brown, cited the small number of offensive plays the Texans ran. O’Brien said the team had it mapped out that the rotation would go Grimes, Blue, Johnson, which seems to mean Brown is, at best, the fifth-string running back.

"Take it one day at a time and whatever happens, happens," Brown said. "I’m going to go out here and continue to get better, continue to be out here supporting my team and being a great teammate. And that’s all I can control and that’s what it’s going to be."

On the heels of that, we learned this afternoon that the Texans are kicking the tires on a few potential veteran running backs not named Andre Brown:

Texans today work out 3 free agent running backs: Brian Leonard, William Powell and Ronnie Brown.

— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) August 11, 2014

Has Andre Brown's time as a Texan come to an end before he even took a snap in a preseason game?

UPDATE: To answer the question that ended this post, yes. Yes, Andre Brown's time as a Texan did come to a close before he even took a snap in a preseason game.