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Digging into the debate surrounding Houston Astros latest roster moves

There's certainly a deadline hangover and not all Astros fans agree on whether Houston's front office did enough to put their team over the top for a trip back to the World Series. ESPN Houston's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham examine how the timing of the trades (occurring a full 24 hours ahead of the deadline) has played into fan perception of the moves. Click the above video to examine their thoughts on each move, trades for Trey Mancini, Christian Vasquez, Will Smith, and the critiques attached to each move.

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Cowherd provided the Texans with intel on a draft prospect. Composite Getty Image.

The Houston Texans have all the media outlets talking about them this offseason, after making some bold moves that ownership hopes will bring the city its first Super Bowl.

Cal and Hannah McNair have made it clear that they “want to win now” and their moves in free agency certainly back that up. Full transparency, Cowherd has some concerns about the Texans ability to repeat last year's success with a first-place schedule in 2024 that should challenge CJ Stroud and the Texans.

But he's starting to rethink his predictions for Houston (missing the playoffs), because of the team's aggressive approach this offseason.

“The Houston Texans now have a very sharp GM, a great coach, a great coordinator, and a star quarterback,” said Cowherd.

Later, he makes the point that the Patriots didn't draft well when Texans GM Nick Caserio worked under Bill Belichick in New England. Yet, in Houston, Caserio has done a good job in the draft. Which leads Colin to believe Belichick is the reason the Patriots had so many draft misses over the last several years.

This isn't about luck

Cowherd knows the Texans didn't rebuild this quickly because of luck, despite some comments from his co-host to the contrary.

“Houston has turned around a shipwreck in a year and a half based on smart people making really smart moves,” Cowherd stated.

And then Colin said something very fascinating. A couple of years ago, Cowherd interviewed Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton, a player many had being mocked to the Texans before the draft.

After the interview, the Texans reached out to Cowherd just to get his thoughts on Hamilton. Trying to get any information on what he was like as a person, how he behaved when the cameras were off, that type of thing.

The Texans reached out wanting to know his “interpretation” of the player after spending thirty-five minutes with him. And Colin gladly answered their questions.

After some lean years for Texans fans, it's great to see the front office is going the extra mile to acquire any information they can about the players on their draft board. This is what smart organizations do.

In the end, Houston traded back and did not draft Hamilton. Hamilton has since been drafted by the Ravens and made All-Pro in 2024. But the point remains, the Texans are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to making informed decisions in the draft.

You can watch the video above for the full conversation. The Hamilton topic starts at the 3:10 mark in the video.

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