Making fun of Bill O'Brien and the Texans after their two trades on Saturday was pretty much Football Twitter's national holiday. Pundits and regular fans just lambasted O'Brien after he shipped out former No. 1 overall pick Jadeveon Clowney, and paid a king's ransom for Dolphins left tackle Laremy Tunsil.
To recap:
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1167828420383911937
(Plus it was learned today that the Texans are nearly half Clowney's salary this year.)
https://twitter.com/Rotoworld_FB/status/1167923074190036993
There's no question that O'Brien, who is acting as the Texans' general manager right now after the team fired Brian Gaine and didn't land Nick Caserio, whiffed badly on the Clowney situation — way worse than the Patriots did with Jimmy Garoppolo.
But the real question is, especially for O'Brien, who's on the hot seat this year, is whether or not the Texans are a better team this season without Clowney and with Tunsil?
Obviously the results will speak for themselves, but you can make the argument the Texans are better for this season after the deals.
The Clowney trade was just bad and looked amateurish. The time to trade Clowney, if you were going to do it, was earlier in the offseason and way before the deadline to sign a franchise tag player to a contract extension had passed. Once that happened, Clowney had no trade value.
At that point, the Texans' choices were to keep Clowney for the season and left him walk for a third-round comp pick in free agency. Or save some money and trade him now for the comp pick. The Texans chose the latter.
On the field, there's no question that Clowney was immensely talented, but there was no way a smart team would invest heavily in a player with his injury history (microfracture surgery). Plus, Clowney had only played all 16 games once. And he didn't dominate like he should have. Not once did Clowney put up double-digit sacks.
The Texans are a bit thin at outside linebacker beyond the excellent Whitney Mercilus, but former undrafted free agent Brennan Scarlett will be a solid fill-in. He's akin to a Rob Ninkovich type. Plus, the Texans still have J.J. Watt and the inside linebackers are excellent. They can get similar results on defense without the distraction of Clowney and his many injuries.
As far as the Tunsil trade, this was a deal the Texans had to make. All you need to do is look in that division at what happened to Andrew Luck. What's the value of a franchise left tackle if it extends the career of your franchise quarterback by 5-10 years? Do you think the Colts would have traded two first-round picks to have more years of Luck? Of course they would have.
Tunsil is an ascending and excellent player. The Texans' chances of finding a player like him — a top 10 talent originally — drafting in the bottom of the first round were not good, and they don't have Dante Scarnecchia on staff. The option of trading for Trent Williams — who, like Clowney, is seemingly always hurt — was not optimal.
The Tunsil trade makes the Texans better offensively and extends the career of Watson. The Clowney trade was botched, but the Texans should not suffer much of a decline on defense.
Don't be surprised if these deals work out in the near term for the Texans.
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Some further Patriots roster/cutdown thoughts:
- Of course, I'm not bright enough to make this point in my column ... but obviously, by now, we know that Bill Belichick puts an extreme amount of value on continuity and experience on defense and special teams. I mean, I think we laid that case out pretty well. Riddle me this ... why doesn't he do the same with the Patriots' complicated passing offense? Why is it that every year Belichick seemingly makes Tom Brady and Josh McDaniels (not to mention Bill O'Brien before McDaniels) start over every year? Wouldn't it make sense to have a blend of transition in all three phases?
- I think some of you guys missed the point of my column and were way over the top in your reaction. I think it was a very fair point to bring up and if you don't think so, you're being pretty oversensitive. All I was asking was, the Patriots couldn't get away with moving on from 2-4 veteran role players — say, John Simon, Elandon Roberts, Duron Harmon and Rex Burkhead — in favor of playing a younger and ready understudy, which would be cheaper and open up another spot for a young and cheap player. That's not fair to ask?
- To that end, several people with Patriots ties were stunned to see them trade Keion Crossen and view him as the best example of Belichick's new philosophy. One scout said Crossen had improved greatly as a cornerback, to the point he passed J.C. Jackson this summer. The consensus was that they should have kept Crossen and Duke Dawson — for whom they traded up for in the second round just last year — instead of Jason McCourty. The Patriots could have let Jackson, Crossen, Jonathan Jones and Joejuan Williams battle it out for McCourty's spot.
- "I bet he had four guys for two spots and he thought they were all close as players and he decided to just trade the guys with a market," one source said of the Crossen and Dawson deals.
- Still think that Deatrich Wise, Obi Melifonwu/Duron Harmon, Elandon Roberts and Phillip Dorsett should be thankful for the two trades and two IR moves because otherwise, they were on the chopping block.
- The decision to release Brian Hoyer was no surprise — I've had him off the roster on my final two 53s. It's obvious that Jarrett Stidham had a fairly good grasp of the offense by the end of the preseason and was at least where Jimmy Garoppolo was as a rookie. It will have no effect on the team.
- Patriots need another big man on the defensive line, someone with strength and over 300 pounds. They are very light there despite having too many players. Can't see many beyond Michael Bennett, Lawrence Guy, Danny Shelton and Adam Butler being active and playing. What role are Deatrich Wise and Byron Cowart going to play? On most downs, the Patriots are going to be rushing a package of Bennett and linebackers.
- Patriots claimed by other teams: FB Andrew Beck (Broncos), WR Braxton Berrios (Jets), DE Trent Harris (Dolphins), CB Ken Webster (Dolphins).