With J.J. Watt suffering a season-ending injury in the victory over Oakland and the NFL trade deadline at 3 p.m. Tuesday, it makes sense for coach Bill O’Brien to work the phone lines trying to make a deal for a defensive end.
O’Brien is the general manager without the title, and he didn’t rule out a trade. He expressed confidence in the players he has on defense, and he made it clear Monday he’s not interested in a possible trade for a rental — a player in the last year of his contract.
In other words, O’Brien isn’t interested in a trade like the Jets and Giants made on Monday.
The Jets sent defensive end Leonard Williams, a former first-round pick in the last year of his contract, to the Giants. According to ESPN, the Jets will receive a third-round draft choice in 2020 and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2021 that becomes a fourth-rounder if the Giants extend his contract.
Last week, with the Texans coming off a loss at Indianapolis and injuries leaving them decimated at cornerback, Trader Bill made a deal with Oakland for Gareon Conley. He started against his former team and allowed a touchdown before breaking up a pass on the last drive that helped secure the 27-24 victory.
Defeating the Raiders improved the Texans’ record to 5-3 at the midway point of the season. They remained one-half game behind the Colts in the AFC South going into Sunday’s rematch with Jacksonville in London.
This seems like the ideal time to seriously consider another trade if O’Brien believes it will strength a defense that needs it.
“No, I don’t think it has to do with that,” he said about being so close to first place. “I would say the chances of any transaction like that happening today are slim and none, to be honest with you, but never say never.”
Notice O’Brien said “today” and left out Tuesday and the looming trade deadline.
“It’s about a lot of different factors,” O’Brien said. “I think it’s more about this year’s team but also the future. There’s a lot that goes into these things. It’s not just about 2019. It’s also about 2020 (and) 2021 relative to the roster, the draft, what’s the contract of the player that maybe a team is offering you?
“If they’re a player who’s under contract and their contract’s up in eight games this year, then do you want to get into the business of just renting a player for eight? I don’t think so. I would say the answer is no.”
With all of O’Brien’s wheeling and dealing since he was placed in charge of personnel, the Texans’ cupboard isn’t bare in next year’s draft.
In case there’s a defensive end — or a player at any other position of need — and O’Brien is interested, he’s got some chips to play with.
In 2020, the Texans have their second-round draft choice. If they get a third-round compensatory pick, it goes to Cleveland for running back Duke Johnson if he’s active for 10 games. If he’s not, the Browns get the Texans’ fourth-round selection.
The Texans are likely to get at least one and perhaps two compensatory picks in the third round because of the free agent losses of safety Tyrann Mathieu and cornerback Kareem Jackson. If Johnson stays healthy, one of those third-rounders will go to the Browns.
If that happens, O’Brien will have the Texans’ regular picks in the second, third and fourth rounds that might interest teams looking to unload a defensive end. If not, he can just keep them and use them on prospects.
In his dual role, O’Brien has to keep one eye on this year’s team and the other on the future. He’s already traded first-round picks in 2020 and 2021 and a second-round selection in 2021 to Miami.
“Any decision you make is in the best interest of the team,” he said. “So is that decision relative to this year’s team? Yeah, sometimes it is, absolutely.
“We made a decision for this game that was relative to trying to beat Oakland. But then there’s decisions you have to weigh with all the people in that room — Jack Easterby (executive vice president of team development), Chris Olsen (senior vice president of football administration) and Matt Bazirgan (director of player personnel) — that you weigh relative to the future of the organization and not just the Jacksonville game.
“You have to weigh all of those things, and you put the factors up on the board and talk about them. Then you take a break, come back and talk about it again. You try to work it out and make the best decision for the Texans.”
And the best decision might be to do nothing.
It’s up to defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel to figure out how to replace Watt. No player can replace Watt’s ability as a pass rusher, but the logical three-man front would be to move nose tackle D.J. Reader to end and insert Brandon Dunn to play the nose. Angelo Blackson remains as the other end.
Another possibility would be to have rookie Charles Omenihu elevated to the starting lineup opposite Blackson. Or Omenihu can continue to come off the bench and get more playing time as a pass rusher. Outside linebacker Jacob Martin should also see his snaps increase in passing situations.
“No one person is going to take the spot of a Hall of Fame player, but these things happen, and we’ve got to move forward and do what we have to do to win games,” O’Brien said. “We’re going to do the best we can to put the players in the right position based on what their skillsets are.”
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October 29, 2019 at 06:00AM
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