I feel like Bleacher Report rarely has good non-wrestling based articles, but I feel like this is an actually good and relevant one.
No One's Laughing at Bill O'Brien's Front Office Moves in Houston Anymore
The following
Houston Texans column is
not about any of these usual Texans topics:
- What an excellent young quarterback/MVP candidate Deshaun Watson is;
- Whether DeAndre Hopkins is the NFL's best wide receiver or merely one of the top two or three;
- J.J. Watt, Hall of Famer/humanitarian/beloved-cultural-icon-in-absentia.
In fact, this column is barely about the Texans' Big Three at all.
This is a column about (
gasp) other Texans players making significant contributions and (
deeper gasp) what a good job Bill O'Brien is doing as both a coach and (
wheezing hyperventilation) personnel guy.
It's a column we never thought would be written.
The Texans are 8-4 and coming off a convincing Sunday night win over the
Patriots, a game covered nationally, as usual, as a stunning Patriots defeat, not a major victory for [
insert less-celebrated opponent here]. Having beaten the
Chiefs earlier in the season, the Texans are on the inside track to the third seed in the AFC playoffs.
Not bad for a team supposedly being mismanaged by a mad tyrant willing to strip-mine the future for a win or two.
The Texans fired general manager Brian Gaine in June, replacing him with a subcommittee of O'Brien yes-men: personnel majordomo Jack Easterby, cap guru Chris Olsen and bass guitarist Matt Bazirgan*. Soon after seizing absolute power, O'Brien and his Scooby Gang traded All-Pro defender
Jadeveon Clowney for a third-round pick and some bit players.
For an encore, O'Brien and the Pips traded away the entire future of Texans football (two first-round picks and a 2021 second-rounder, to be precise), for left tackle Laremy Tunsil, who has never been confused with Orlando Pace. Other trades were scattered across the summer and early autumn, all of them drawing some measure of criticism.
It sure looked like O'Brien was flying by the seat of his pants. And perhaps he was. But his moves have paid off, at least in the short term:
- Tunsil has played well and stabilized the Texans offensive line. Watson was sacked 62 times last year but is on pace for a less-cataclysmic 47 sacks this season.
- Receiver Kenny Stills, the rarely mentioned spare change thrown into the Tunsil trade, has 30 catches for 461 yards and two touchdowns this season, including 3-61-1 in the Patriots victory.
- Running back Duke Johnson Jr., acquired from the Browns in August for a conditional mid-round pick, also caught a touchdown pass against the Patriots and has 679 scrimmage yards this season.
- Carlos Hyde, acquired in a trade for lineman Martinas Rankin at the end of the preseason, is seventh in the AFC with 853 rushing yards and a more-than-respectable 4.6 yards per carry.
- Cornerback Gareon Conley, a Raiders 2017 first-round pick who appeared to be going bust, has played surprisingly well as a starter since coming to Houston in October in exchange for yet another mid-round pick.
- The defense surely misses Clowney, especially with Watt out for the year, but step-up performances by Whitney Mercilus, D.J. Reader and others have softened the blow.
bleacherreport.com/articles/2865114-no-ones-laughing-at-bill-obriens-front-office-moves-in-houston-anymore