Bill O’Brien, Houston Texans. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
Bill O’Brien made arguably the worst trade in the NFL this century. Is it time for the Houston Texans to move on from their long-time head football coach?
What was Bill O’Brien thinking? Not sure he was, but he pulled off one of the worst trades of our lifetimes during free agency. He essentially swapped fourth-round picks with the Arizona Cardinals by sending arguably his best player in wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins for a broken-down running back in David Johnson. How is O’Brien still the head coach of the Houston Texans?
On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Mark Carman expressed their opinions on how stupid of a trade it was for the Texans to make. O’Brien may win the AFC South two out of every three years, but this was a deal that could sink the franchise for years to come (25:50).
Verderame would say O’Brien is a bad head coach and an even worse general manager. The Texans are now devoid of offensive weapons and they have very little picks in the upcoming draft. O’Brien traded away former stars like Hopkins and defensive end Jadeveon Clowney for not even a single first-round pick. How is this even possible?
Carman brought up how complicated it must be in the Texans’ locker room by having the head coach as the de facto general manager with no separation of power. A coach can say he’s got his players’ back, while a general manager is the one with the finger on the button to execute a trade. How can star quarterback Deshaun Watson even trust his head coach’s judgement at this point?
Should O’Brien be out of a job in Houston? Yes, but he has won enough to keep the McNair Family happy for the time being. They’ve enabled him to win every power struggle in-house and the Texans are paying a price for it. Over the last half decade, they’ve had the talent to contend for a Super Bowl, but have never made it past the divisional round in franchise history.
They are the only NFL franchise to never play in a conference championship in their history. While the Texans aren’t even 20-years-old yet, their head coach/de facto general manager made a decision dumber than any college kid at the zenith of his or her stupidity. If the Texans want to get smart, they need to get a better head coach as soon as they possibly can. It’s that bad in Houston.
Here are a few other topics discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:
- Tom Brady leaves New England Patriots (0:45)
- COVID-19 talk (21:35)
- What are the Dallas Cowboys doing? (32:20)
- Kirk Cousins screwed by the Minnesota Vikings? (38:25)
All this and more!
Subscribe to Stacking The Box and follow Matt Verderame and Mark Carman on Twitter.