Can Slaton be a Feature Back?

[Warren]

Like Bob said, Slaton hasn't had to do a lot of running in traffic. A lot of the time at West Virginia he was either pitched the ball on the edge or he ran through gaps in the defense created by the vertical spread of the offensive personnel. IMO, the key trait that an NFL feature back must have is the ability to get yards after contact, because pro RBs don't get big holes where they can go untouched very often. And a RB can get yards after contact in any number of ways -- breaking tackles with power, bouncing off defenders, juking defenders so they don't get a clean shot, etc. Slaton needs to prove he can do that. Just like with zoning-blocking OLs, the Texans' offensive braintrust should know what to look for in RBs, so we'll see.