The Texans traded one of their best players for draft picks and David Johnson

Report: Texans trade DeAndre Hopkins

Texans Bill O'Brien
DeAndre Hopkins and the Texans were oh, so close. Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

The Texans trade DeAndre Hopkins or pennies on the dollar.

The trade

What an absolutely brutal return for what could be the best wideout in football.

The Texans added into the deal a fourth round pick as well making it an absolutely atrocious return.

David Johnson has been a disappoitment since his All-Pro season.

Hopkins didn't even warrant a first? Brutal.

Hopkins first tweet

Sensational was Hopkins' message. He seems happy to be headed out. Why wouldn't he? He is likely getting a new deal and at the very least he is getting to a team thrilled to have him.

The offense now

Will Fuller and Kenny Stills are now the top pass catchers on the Texans. The team also still has DeAndre Carter and Keke Coutee who are both slot wideout types.

The team will have to replace one of the best players in the history of the franchise. Hopkins almost never missed games. Stills and Fuller both have missed time recently. Stills missed three games this past season and left others with injury. Fuller has played 42 of the 64 possible regular season games in his career. In the past three years, he has missed 20 of the past 48 possible regular season games.

The direction of the offense is hard to figure out right now. They still have a speedster in Fuller but he isn't reliable. They have an abundance of tight ends and two pass-catching running backs named Johnson.

Congratulations to new play caller Tim Kelly. You have one of the hardest jobs in the world now: figuring out the Texans offense post-Hopkins.

O'Brien with full power has become reckless

The amount of recklessness shown by O'Brien and the lack of a filter has been incredible to watch.

The trade for Tunsil was paying above sticker price. The Texans didn't sign him to an extension and will make him the highest paid offensive lineman in NFL history now.

This is the worst move in Texans history though. This takes the cake. Unless there is some medical or mental issue the Texans know about that nobody else does this takes the cake for worst move in franchise history.

Tunsil and Clowney give their thoughts

Laremy Tunsil and former Texans pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney weighed in on Instagram.

Apparently it was about money

This is horrible by the Texans. They could have stood pat. Hopkins wasn't going to sit with the new rules hurting veteran holdouts.

Per the new CBA from Dan Graziano: A "player playing under a contract signed as a veteran who fails to report to his club's preseason training camp on time or reports and leaves the club for more than five days" cannot have his fines waived by the team upon return and will not earn an accrued season for that season. Harsh, but note that it specifies "a contract signed as a veteran."

Also, even if he wanted new money, why wouldn't you take care of him? He was one of the best players at his position! He is better at wideout than Tunsil is at tackle and yet Tunsil is about to cash in. Goodness.

Most Popular

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome

Listen Live

Dusty Baker collects more hardware. Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images.

Dusty Baker has won the fourth Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Baseball Digest.

The beloved Baker retired following the 2023 season after spending 56 years in the majors as a player, coach and manager. He was honored Thursday with an annual distinction that “recognizes a living individual whose career has been spent in or around Major League Baseball and who has made significant contributions to the game.”

Willie Mays won the inaugural award in 2021, followed by Vin Scully in 2022 and Joe Torre last year.

“Receiving this award is a tremendous honor,” Baker said in a news release. “I never thought that I’d be in the class of the people that received this award. I know that my late mom and dad would be proud of me. This is really special.”

The 74-year-old Baker broke into the big leagues as a teenager with the Atlanta Braves in 1968 and played 19 seasons. He made two All-Star teams, won two Silver Slugger awards and earned a Gold Glove in the outfield.

He was the 1977 NL Championship Series MVP and finished fourth in 1980 NL MVP voting before helping the Los Angeles Dodgers win the 1981 World Series.

Following his playing career, Baker was a coach for the San Francisco Giants from 1988-92 and then became their manager in 1993. He won the first of his three NL Manager of the Year awards with the Giants that season and spent 26 years as a big league skipper, also guiding the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals and Houston Astros.

Baker took all those teams to the playoffs, winning 10 division crowns, three pennants and finally a World Series championship in 2022 with the Astros. He ranks seventh on the career list with 2,183 wins and is the only manager in major league history to lead five franchises to division titles.

In January, he returned to the Giants as a special adviser to baseball operations. Baker's former team is 7-18 under new Astros manager Joe Espada.

“On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am honored to congratulate Dusty Baker as the 2024 recipient of Baseball Digest’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He joins an incredible club," Commissioner Rob Manfred said. "Dusty represents leadership, goodwill, and winning baseball. His ability to connect with others, across generations, is second to none. He is a championship manager and player. But, most importantly, Dusty is an extraordinary ambassador for our national pastime.”

Baker was selected in voting by an 18-member panel from a list of candidates that also included Bob Costas, Sandy Koufax, Tony La Russa, Jim Leyland, Rachel Robinson and Bud Selig, among others.

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome