The SUPERGENIUS of Bill O’Brien, Renaissance Man
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It must be said that important new information has surfaced since I prematurely derided the Texans for giving away an elite pass rusher for an undated 6-pack of Red Hook ESB:
If you thought the Texans got fleeced yesterday, you haven’t heard the whole story.
Not only did Houston give Jadeveon Clowney to Seattle and receive only two backups and a third-round draft pick, but Houston is also giving Clowney $7 million.
As part of the Seahawks-Texans trade, Clowney’s pay this season won’t be the usual $15.967 million base salary that comes with the franchise tender. Instead, it will be a $7 million signing bonus paid by the Texans, followed by an $8 million base salary paid by the Seahawks. Schefter also reports that the Seahawks agreed not to franchise Clowney next year.
Presumably Schneider and Carroll took O’Brien’s lunch money and locked him in a broom closet on the way out too.
And the Texans weren’t finished!
Having given away their second-best defensive player for a relative pittance, and having agreed to pay that player more than half his 2019 money to do it, the Texans turned their attention back to the left tackle position. The original trade idea with the Dolphins would have given Miami left tackle Laremy Tunsil to Houston in exchange for Clowney, and the O’Brien crew doubled down. In exchange for Tunsil and receiver Kenny Stills, the Texans gave up two first-round picks, a second-round pick, the aforementioned Julie’n Davenport and special teams ace Jonathan Bademosi.
Tunsil is an above-average left tackle, and Stills is a nice complementary second receiver. Both will work well in Houston’s offense, and Tunsil is a distinct upgrade over everybody who’s played left tackle for the team since Houston shipped Duane Brown to Seattle in 2017. But this deal gave more draft capital to the Dolphins than the Khalil Mack or Odell Beckham Jr. trades, and just because Tunsil is a premium offensive tackle on the rise doesn’t put him in that value category.
Moreover, the Texans didn’t work out a long-term contract with Tunsil before making the trade. The 2016 first-round draft pick is on the books for a little under $4 million in 2019, and the Texans can exercise his fifth-year option in 2020 for $10.35 million, but beyond that, they’d have to either place the franchise tag on him or give Tunsil a massive multi-year deal — and given what Houston gave up for him, Tunsil has all the leverage in the world.
The trade is not quite as obviously ridiculous as the Clowney trade because the Texans desperately needed offensive line help. But even assuming that Tunsil is or will be better than the cromulent plus LT PFF grades him out as, which I don’t think is unreasonable, that’s an egregiously high price to give up — as Farrar says more than the Bears and Browns gave up for genuinely elite talents. And if you’re going to put all of your chips on the table for 2019 like that, trying to cheat Clowney and then giving away makes even less sense than it does on its face. Even as someone who is much more skeptical of “trust the process” tanking than many analytical types, this is a great trade for Miami and it’s very hard to see it working for Houston.
I’m beginning to think that just Bill Belichick can handle head coaching and personnel duties doesn’t necessarily mean that the former Belichick peon who totally turned Tom Brady into a great QB after he had already won 3 Super Bowls can handle either, let alone both.
If I were a #Texans player, I’d be wondering about a culture that runs off best players with no equivalent replacements or plan. How do you get buy-in for that or that it’s best for team? The culture seems like it’s driven by the seat of O’Brien’s pants fueled by ego and anger. https://t.co/BVhAPdxULI— Stephanie Stradley (@StephStradley) September 1, 2019