Mark Ingram: Texans Can Be a 'Championship-Type Team' Despite Outside Expectation

Most expected the Houston Texans to be one of the NFL's worst teams this season.

Mark Ingram sees things differently. Very differently.

"We don't care what nobody say. It's all about what we believe in this locker room, it's all about what we believe in this building, and we believe we have a team that can be great, win games and be a championship-type team," Ingram said Thursday on Good Morning Football. "That's what we have all aspirations for. If you're not playing this game to be a champion, if you're not playing this game to be the best, if you're not playing this game to win, then you're in the wrong business. And that's what we all believe and that what we're all pushing for, that's what we're working for."

The Texans defied expectations in Week 1 with a 37-21 drubbing of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Ingram, essentially cast aside by the Baltimore Ravens last season, rushed for 85 yards and a touchdown in his Texans debut.

The 31-year-old is part of a committee with Phillip Lindsay and David Johnson, a threesome of veterans considered by many as being past their primes. The same goes for quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who is playing for his fifth NFL team despite being a solid starter everywhere he's been given a chance. Brandin Cooks is on his fourth team despite having five 1,000-yard receiving seasons at age 27. 

Odds are the Texans are still going to live down to their expectations. The roster is still bereft of talent in several areas, and veteran guile can only take you so far. That said, this appears to be a team motivated by proving all of their doubters—of which there were many—wrong.