HOUSTON -- As most teams go into the 2020 NFL draft this week with the goal of building a team through selecting and developing college players, it’s clear that Houston Texans coach and general manager Bill O’Brien has taken a different approach since gaining control of the team’s football operations last summer.
O’Brien and the rest of the Texans’ front office understand the importance of the draft and the necessity of finding affordable, young talent. But in the past eight months, the team has made its biggest acquisitions via trades for veteran players, which goes against the grain in a salary cap-conscious league.
Since last August, O’Brien has made eight trades. Only the New England Patriots have made more involving players in that span, according to ESPN Stats & Information. But while the Patriots' trades involved several players nearing the ends of their careers, such as Michael Bennett, Mohamed Sanu and Demaryius Thomas, the Texans’ deals have involved stars in their prime, such as DeAndre Hopkins, Jadeveon Clowney, Laremy Tunsil, David Johnson and Brandin Cooks.
Two of the deals rid the Texans of potential contract disputes, as Clowney did not report to offseason workouts or training camp last year after the Texans used the franchise tag on him, and Hopkins wanted a raise with three years left on his contract.
While those two trades were intended to save cap space, O’Brien has spent more money in a “win-now” approach with the other deals.
One reason for the spending spree is the massive contract extension that quarterback Deshaun Watson is due. On his current deal, Watson accounts for 4% of the Texans’ salary cap for 2020, with a cap hit for this year set to be $4.4 million. Per OverTheCap.com, the Texans have $19.1 million in cap space headed into the draft. The amount of space they will have after a Watson deal will certainly eat up a large chunk -- if not all, depending on other deals and how an extension would be structured -- and O'Brien's flexibility in building the Texans' roster will diminish.
Deals started in 2019 camp
All eight trades happened after the Texans fired general manager Brian Gaine last June and gave O’Brien control over the team’s personnel. The flurry began Aug. 8, when the Texans sent the Cleveland Browns a third-round pick for running back Duke Johnson.
Later that month, O’Brien made four deals on cutdown day. He began the wheeling and dealing by sending Clowney to the Seattle Seahawks for a 2020 third-round pick and linebackers Jacob Martin and Barkevious Mingo. Houston also paid Clowney a $7 million signing bonus as part of the deal, while Seattle paid the remaining $8 million of his salary.
Hours later, O’Brien traded first-round draft picks in 2020 and '21, a second-round pick in '21, offensive tackle Julie'n Davenport and cornerback Johnson Bademosi to the Miami Dolphins for left tackle Tunsil, wide receiver Kenny Stills, a fourth-round pick in 2020 and a sixth-round pick in '21. On that same day, O’Brien traded a 2020 sixth-round pick to the New England Patriots for cornerback Keion Crossen, and he sent guard Martinas Rankin to the Kansas City Chiefs for running back Carlos Hyde.
During the season at the trade deadline, O’Brien traded a 2020 third-round pick -- the one the Texans received in the Clowney trade -- to the Raiders for cornerback Gareon Conley.
The Texans won a playoff game for just the third time in team history and repeated as AFC South champions. After the season, O’Brien was asked to evaluate the trades he made and said he thought the moves he made “did pay off,” adding that with “any move we make, we try to think about the long term. Now, you could probably pick and choose some moves where maybe contractually it doesn't seem like it's long term, but within the building and within the meeting rooms, we think about it more for long-term purposes as we move forward here.”
In total, the Texans traded away two first-round picks, one in the second round and two in the third between the start of 2019 training camp and the trade deadline.
DeAndre Hopkins picks the Texans as his team in the celebrity Madden tournament against Lil Yachty.
Two blockbusters this spring
Trader Bill hasn’t slowed down in 2020. In March, O’Brien made perhaps his biggest trade yet, sending three-time All-Pro wide receiver Hopkins and a 2020 fourth-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals for running back David Johnson, a 2020 second-round pick and a fourth-round selection in 2021. On April 9, the Texans traded a 2020 second-round pick (No. 57 overall, not the one received in the Hopkins trade) to the Los Angeles Rams for Cooks and a 2022 fourth-round pick.
While the plan is to have Tunsil around to protect Watson for a long time, and Stills could be an important part of the Texans’ receivers group next season with Cooks and Will Fuller having missed time due to injuries in 2019, the moves show O’Brien values those draft picks less than players whom he believes are proven.
When asked about why he has chosen to build his team through trades, O’Brien said because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has turned the offseason workouts into a virtual program, he believes the 2020 season “is a veteran type of year.”
“I think it's going to be really difficult for rookies without offseason practicing on the field and being able to do all the things that you do during that five-week stretch after the draft and then training camp,” O’Brien said in a conference call before the draft. “Who knows when all that will start -- I'm not trying to predict that -- but I think this year being different than any other year is part of our building of the team also."
The Cooks trade was the only deal O’Brien made before he could have envisioned the circumstances of the pandemic, but his method has added more experience to the roster. He cited new additions Randall Cobb and Cooks having experience playing in the Super Bowl.
When O’Brien spoke before the draft, he mentioned the roster is still incomplete. While there doesn’t appear to be too much draft capital remaining, don’t be surprised if the Texans are active on the trade market before the regular season kicks off, whenever that might be in 2020.