Tennessee Titans destroy Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans in free agency grades

Houston Texans

Grade: F—

"Houston Texans: Bill O’Brien traded DeAndre Hopkins for David Johnson and a second, then pretended that Randall Cobb would fix the problem. That’s after letting DJ Reader walk away without an offer. Scar Voice: Run, Deshaun. Runaway and never return."

Whew boy, that is a brutal grade and it still may be giving the Texans too much credit.

Short of folding, the Texans have done everything they can to hurt this team short and long term.

In addition to the Texans trading one of the best receivers in the NFL for a running back that most forgot was still in the league, Houston gave away Jadeveon Clowney and brought in Laremy Tunsil (more on this in a second).

Just in case you didn’t remember correctly, the Clowney’s trade ended up being a player swap since the Texans traded that 3rd round picks for Gareon Conley in the middle of the season. With no plans to commit to Conley long term, it looks like this may end up being a 20 game rental.

Back to Tunsil. While he was overwhelmingly fine, he also led the NFL in penalties by an offensive lineman and he has more name value than on the field value in my opinion. Luckily, the Texans have a chance to prove how great they think he is because as of right now it looks like he will demand $20 million or more per year with the contract the Texans have to give him in 2021.

That’s right, the Texans traded two 1st round picks and a 2nd round pick for the opportunity to make Tunsil the highest-paid OT in the NFL.

Even all that wouldn’t have been a deal-breaker if not for the Nuk Hopkins trade which was a travesty. Also, taking away your QB’s best friend isn’t a great idea before entering his final year under contract.

There is a very real possibility where Watson holds out and refuses to stay with the Texans in 2021 and they enter the 2021 offseason with no QB, no Hopkins, no Clowney, an overpaid Tunsil, and no 1st round draft pick.

Yikes.