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.

Watt Weighs In

Former Texans cornerback Kareem Jackson said he believes Watt might get traded.

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How significant Astros spring training revelation highlights even more reasons for optimism

The Houston Astros had a very successful season in 2023 which led them back to the ALCS for the seventh-straight season, but despite another deep playoff run, their pitching did regress from the prior year.

While many would point to their historic bullpen in 2022 and say they had nowhere to go but down, that doesn't paint the full picture. It was the starting rotation that really fell off in 2023. Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Hunter Brown, and Jose Urquidy all saw a spike in their ERAs from the previous season.

According to a recent report from The Athletic's Chandler Rome, we might have an explanation for Jose Urquidy's down year.

The Astros and Urquidy believe he was tipping his pitches. Which would explain why the slugging percentage against his fastball jumped from .482 in 2022 to .632 in 2023.

When hitters know a pitcher is tipping, they often start hunting fastballs. Also, his strikeout percentage went down last year and his walks went way up. He had 2 more walks per nine innings in 2023 than he had in 2021.

Part of that could be him aiming for corners and refusing to give in to hitters because his fastball wasn't performing up to expectations.

His WHIP in 2023 really jumped off the page as well. He finished with a WHIP over 1.4. While his career WHIP is 1.143. That's a huge difference.

Back to the big picture

Until last season, Urquidy never finished with an ERA over 3.95. He recorded a 5.29 ERA last year. So when we factor in his shoulder injury that cost him three months of the season, and the fact he was tipping pitches, we believe he's in store for a bounce-back season.

And the Astros are going to need him, especially with Justin Verlander and JP France possibly not being available for the start of the season.

What will the rotation look like early on?

The Astros haven't ruled Verlander out yet, so he could be ready to go. But if not, and we base this off what we saw last season. The rotation will likely include Valdez, Javier, Brown, Urquidy, Ronel Blanco, and Brandon Bielak.

Don't miss the video above for the full discussion!

Catch Stone Cold 'Stros (an Astros podcast) with Charlie Pallilo, Brandon Strange, and Josh Jordan every Monday on SportsMapHouston's YouTube channel.

We'll continue to drop videos throughout the week!


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