National Post (National Edition)
Texans’ trade of Hopkins a failure in asset care
The Houston Texans’ trading of superstar wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins on Monday to the Arizona Cardinals made sense to Texans head coach and GM Bill O’Brien.
If you can find a second person, anywhere, who thinks likewise, please alert the world via social media.
It’s hard to think of a major-sports trade, upon first glance then after deeper inspection, as stupid as this one.
At first, when news initially broke Monday, only the identity of the player coming to Houston leaked out: running back David Johnson, arguably one of the top run-and-catch backs in the league when healthy.
The Twittersphere then speculated on what elements might have completed the trade. Some wags even joked that, you watch, Hopkins — whom Peter King of NBC Sports reported Monday morning might well be on the trading block — would be the one going back to the Cardinals in return.
Laughter was all around. The laughing stopped and the jaws dropped, though, when John McClain of the Houston Chronicle tweeted out the entire deal a short while later: Johnson, a 2020 second-rounder and a 2021 fourth-rounder to Houston for Hopkins and 2020 fourth-rounder in return.
Yes, Hopkins. No joke.
Shocked Texans fans across Southeastern Texas no doubt froze and crumpled like thousands of army droids in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace once the controlling mother ship blew up.
Spotrac.com, the pro-sports salary-tracking website, may have summed it up best in this tweet: “Imagine making a trade where you could have paid DeAndre Hopkins $12.5 million this year, but instead you’re choosing to pay David Johnson $11.25 million.”
Right. One could argue, as O’Brien surely will when hauled into his owner’s office at some point, that the trade essentially is a swap of disgruntled players due to make about the same big money in 2020.
But Johnson is no longer a top running back, whereas Hopkins sure as heck still is a top receiver. Even if Johnson were, a top running back is nowhere near as valuable as a top wideout.
The 27-year-old Hopkins’ resume glistens.
In seven NFL seasons he has been named an all-pro in each of the past three years, and to the Pro Bowl four times. In missing only two career games he has averaged 101 catches over the past five seasons for an annual average of 1,318 yards and 8.4 total touchdowns. That’s just magnificent.
What head coach would want to get rid of such a superstar at the peak of his incredible abilities? Well, Bill O’Brien. That’s who.
It’s no secret that he, as the Texans’ chief offensive strategist and play-caller, and Hopkins did not get along in Houston. Over play-calling differences, and who knows what else behind the scenes. Personality conflict, whatever.
Surely there were other NFL head coaches this past season who occasionally were at their wit’s end with their No. 1 receiver, too. But Hopkins is nothing at all like the selfishly bent Antonio Brown was in the meltdown years of his nineyear stint in Pittsburgh.
O’Brien last year added GM powers to his portfolio in Houston. Such dual power was cemented in the off-season. Clearly O’Brien, the GM, acted Monday on the wants and desires of O’Brien, the head coach.
But even if you wanted to trade a receiver of Hopkins’ quality, O’Brien got far too little in return. That is, he did not land a firstround draft pick, along with whatever else.
The following standout wideouts over the past 20 or so years all were traded for a first-round draft pick, per a tweet from @MySportsUpdate: Percy Harvin, Roy Williams, Joey Galloway, Peerless Price, Keyshawn Johnson, Brandin Cooks, Brandin Cooks again, Amari Cooper, Odell Beckham Jr. and Randy Moss.
Worse, if you’re a Texans fan, this was O’Brien’s third major trade since last September.
Here’s what he acquired in those trades:
❚ A top NFL left tackle, Laremy Tunsil;
❚ A decent No. 2 receiver, Kenny Stills;
❚ A good dual-threat running back, Johnson;
❚ Two backup outside linebackers, Jacob Martin and Barkevious Mingo;
❚ Round 2, Round 4 (two) and Round 6 draft picks.
Here’s what O’Brien gave up in those trades:
❚ A former No. 1 overall draft pick, elite edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney;
❚ An elite receiver coming off three straight all-pro seasons, Hopkins;
❚ A backup cornerback, Johnson Bademosi;
❚ A below-average starting offensive tackle, Julie’n Davenport;
❚ Not one but two first-rounders and a fourth-rounder.
That’s NFL talent mismanagement of a degree worthy of being informed rather sternly that you no longer get to do this.
As for the Cardinals? Wow. Quarterback Kyler Murray, coming off a way-underappreciated rookie season as the No. 1 overall draft pick, now not only has a stilldang-good Larry Fitzgerald split out to one side, but Hopkins out to the other.
Fitz and Hop? Sounds like a breakfast chain. But together they could form one delicious NFL wide-receiver duo in 2020, especially in the system of offensively creative head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who also did a better job in Year 1 than he’s generally credited for.