Joe Mixon has been an essential part of this Texans offense, and he will need to be a big part of the game plan for this Wild Card matchup. While Mixon does most of his damage on the ground, he is one of the few every-down backs left in the NFL. Sure we saw more backup usage last week, but that was a game where they pulled starters. In healthy games, Mixon dominates usage and should get designed touches and panic dump-offs in the receiving game. The Chargers are a strong defense, and with their success in stopping the run this year, I would expect Mixon to be used in more creative ways. The Texans are also now without Tank Dell in addition to Stefon Diggs, which should open up some receiving work for Mixon a bit more. When Houston was without Nico Collins earlier this season, Mixon averaged 3.5 targets per game and should continue to see good volume. With the Texans' skill position players so beat up, they ended this season looking pretty bad on offense. It makes a lot of logical sense that they would have to rely on the short passing game, keeping the pressure off of CJ Stroud as much as possible. As 3-point underdogs, they will likely not be able to run as much as they would like, but Mixon will still be a big part of those early down plays even through the air.