Texans trade for Brandin Cooks

Posey's first two years were with Kubiak. Miller was a college QB. Coutee hasn't developed - but he also hasn't been healthy. No one should or could argue that BOB can develop WRs - but... I'm not sure this list proves he can't.

You're vastly understating the impact Fuller has had on this team; his issue is 100% health, not development. And Hopkins has thrived in this offense, too - let's not just casually dismiss that. Lastly, Stills had a very nice season in 2019.

 

Um, teams trade players without talking to other players all the time. Players do not have a say. Teams pay players to play, not to advise on trades. You think GMs get players advice on releasing players? Come on now.
Best friends? Doesn’t matter...it is a business and players know that.

 

Might as well go for ANTONIO CLOWN.

 

I don't think I'll ever understand why the 49ers, Seahawks, Bears, Packers and/or Panthers weren't in the mix, not to mention poorly-run organizations in Washington and New York (assuming BOB narrowed his filed to NFC only teams), and why the Eagles bailed when the asking price turned out to be fairly small. And I think one aspect might be building on something you said: prime.... His Hopkins.... still firmly in his prime? Remember: he was made available and the 5-11 Cardinals traded for him......

I've been very critical of the Texans not extracting an OBJ-level deal for Hopkins - and they'll never be able to defend what they did trade him for.

But it just occurred to me: Hopkins is 28; OBJ was 26 when he was traded.

Now, I'm not suggesting Hopkins isn't still an elite WR (though I'm not sure he's top 3) - but I wonder if some of the less-than-enthusiastic market was a combination of his likely contract situation + his age? He should be great/very good for 2, 3 more years and will likely age into a very valuable possession receiver (much like Fitz, frankly - he's never really been a burner). But he wants to be paid like he's still top 3 for the next 3-5 years, and... I'm just not sure he's viewed that way?

And before everyone crawls out from wherever to scream at me: Deandre Hopkins is great. I wish they hadn't traded him or, at the very least, turned him into a much better, more useful return. What I'm wondering is how long he'll be great and if maybe our opinion differs vastly from the NFL's?

Again, the 49ers - with 2 #1s and a ton of cap space - didn't want Deandre Hopkins? Seattle - with 2 #2s and a ton of cap space - didn't want Deandre Hopkins? Maybe the Texans bungled this somehow; I don't know. But......

 

This assumes that BoB properly shopped Nuk.
Believe there were reports that the Texans were targeting David Johnson before the trade was announced. Think it is more than likely that BoB took the Card’s offer right off the back. Hell for all we know BoB could have called and made the offer.

 

LOL! Yeah, at least a run up the middle on 1st, off-tackle on 2nd and then DW scrambling for a 1st on 3rd.

 

Health is a huge part of it but it is not 100% his only issues. fuller is the typical boom or bust receiver when hes on the field. people just see the type of games against atl/indy this year and just attribute that to the every year potential we hear about over and over. but then don't typically factor in the constant duds that come in between and the constant sideline out appearances. those very heavily outweigh the once in awhile boom's that happen maybe twice a year at most. He’s doesn’t have a great list of being a versatile route runner. He’s known as a downhill threat and that’s basically it. Something that can be shutdown more times than not. As far as development he hasn’t really gotten better as an overall receiver. He also doesn’t have Dhop that will garner all the attention anymore.

 

It's certainly viable, and if true, knives out.

But they've reportedly been shopping Hopkins for a while and we know the Eagles were involved so I tend to think Hopkins' contract + possibly age were a bigger factor than BOB straight f'ing it up. But BOB f'ing it up isn't much of a stretch at all, unfortunately.

 

Yup and guessing we'll never really know. But we do know that when BoB wants a guy gone, the guy is gone, valuation aside.

 

Truthfully I'm not a huge fan of paying WRs the type of money Hopkins will likely get - so I don't really have an issue with trading him and as I mentioned I'm not a Texans fan so don't have much bias either way here. The teams you named outside of the Panthers have all been very successful and they have rarely paid WRs top dollar.

I think everyone or at least most people on this board share this sentiment...it wasn't the fact that he traded him, it was HOW he traded him. From all accounts it looks like Watson was completely blindsided by the trade, which you don't do if you want to keep your young star QB happy. BOB should have let him know before the trade happened rather than let the guy find out like the rest of us did. The fact that he's the coach makes it awkward/tough - if he was just the GM it wouldn't much of an issue IMO. However, he works with Watson every day and QB/coach trust is something you don't want to damage and he clearly damaged it regardless of what anyone here says.

Then you take into account what they received back in the trade and it just makes matters worse. The signing of Cobb makes absolutely no sense now after the Cooks trade. I know I am speaking to the choir here but this man is just clearly over his head and is not capable of doing the job of a GM AND the head coach at a high level...not many people are for that matter.

That's just my two cents and I'm no expert so hell what do I know...maybe it will all work out for him but the posters here with blind faith that Watson will be a Texan for life are delusional. I'm not betting that he won't be either, all I am saying is there is a decent chance especially if the next season or two doesn't include at least an AFC Championship appearance.

Edit: Just to be clear...the signing of Cobb made no sense even without the Cooks trade if you look at the $ value of the contract BOB gave him. He was the 4th option on the Cowboys. You don't pay a 4th option $9M a year with $18M of it being guaranteed, especially when you have so many holes on defense and just blew a 21+ point lead in the playoffs and it looked like Maholmes was playing Madden on Rookie.

 

The NFL has gotten smarter overall, I'd argue. We probably are over valuing what we think Hopkins is worth in this terrible trade. The timing of everything fell out of favor and BOB made a bad trade. Even a "decent trade" would have been looked down upon.

 

If they got the 8th overall pick and a third rounder to take David Johnson contract, that would’ve been nice. Maybe even throw a 4th or 5th back at the cardinals too.

Pipe dream

 

I could be wrong but isn’t it established that the smarter orgs don’t allocate a ton of money to a WR?

 

49ers and Seahawks don't have a ton of cap space at all, around 12-13M left which is right about in the middle of the teams. And things get much more tight for the 49ers next year where they have a bunch of substantial salary increases. Not to mention Kittles hitting FA, guessing they'd want to bring him back if at all possible.

Also seems like you are assuming those teams are in the market for a WR. 49ers likely are with Sanders gone but maybe just as likely that Lynch saw his defense give up 3 TDs in the 4th quarter and think the picks are better spent on the defense. And while they have two 1st round picks, they don't pick again until the 5th round. For the Seahawks, they are bringing back Lockett and Metcalf, who had an excellent rookie season. They lost Clowney and Wilson was sacked 48 times last season.

It's very possible that we are overvaluing Nuk somewhat but I don't look at those two teams not being in the mix as a knock on Nuk. While they had the draft capital, it probably just didn't make sense from both a cap space and team needs perspective.

 

Texans 3rd in RB spending[$16,616,250] ... only behind Rams[$20,272,080] & Jets[$18,366,390]
Texans 3rd in WR spending[$34,970,820] ... only behind Chiefs[39,744,405] & Bengals[$38,513,625]

Gotta pay Mahomes!
Chiefs didn't give away Edge Rusher Frank Clark (but instead traded for him?!)
and they're paying Tyreek Hill & Sammy Watkins?!
and stole Tyrann Mathieu from Houston?!
and Chris Jones needs a new deal?!
and they paid their LT Eric Fisher?!
and they're paying Travis Kelce, Anthony Hitchens, Mitchell Schwartz, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif & Alex Okafor?!
Yeah, sure they only had $177 (yes $177, not $177,000 but $177) in cap room at one point but so what? Still won a Super Bowl. Mahomes still gonna get paid.

In the words of Russell Westbrook, Bill O'Brien trick y'all man, like he did this to "save money" or because of a "limited salary cap". All that commotion to pay Johnson, Cobb, Cooks, Stills, some dude named Murray.

 

how dare you forget Kai’mi Fairbairn being one of the top paid kickers

 

Not what you want to hear from a guy with so many concussions

 

Does anyone know if Cooks has hit his head during the off season?