Falcon Points

With busy day of trades, O'Brien's transformation to villain is now complete

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

We all love super heroes and comic book movies. A hero fights for good, does his or her best to protect us from evil and those who would destroy our world. They keep the villains from eliminating all we love.

In reality, super heroes don't exist. But sadly, super villains do.

Bill O'Brien's transformation to the latter is now complete.

With Saturday's trade of Jadeveon Clowney to the Seahawks for basically a warm bucket of spit was the final step in his transformation from slightly above average coach to a Chip Kelly-type destroyer of worlds.

O'Brien basically sold Clowney off for a pair of fringe players and a third-round pick. The simple question is why? Why not just keep him this season, when you claim to be a contender? Especially considering the other moves the team made, this makes little sense.

Bullying the bully

O'Brien, the ultimate bully, allowed himself to be bullied into a bad trade because he was too stubborn to suck it up and realize for the now, they were better off keeping Clowney. If you were going to trade him, it should have been on your own terms. Or done months ago. But what happens when someone bullies a bully? He folds.

So the Texans give away an asset for next to nothing.

No offensive tackle to protect Deshaun Watson. Not even a running back. Not even a premium draft pick. O'Brien's rise to the top of the power structure has put the Texans in a precarious position. He has basically solid off assets for almost nothing, simply because he believes he knows better than anyone else.

A real super hero - or, even a GM - would have stepped in and stopped it. But O'Brien has consolidated all the power. In Dark Knight, we learn you die a hero or live long enough to be a villain. O'Brien should have been fired - or at least had his wings clipped - two years ago. Instead he has lived to be the villain.

Tearing it down

There really is nothing positive to pull out of this trade, The Texans are not better. O'Brien dismantled Gary Kubiak's talented offensive line, letting Ben Jones and Brandon Brooks walk in free agency and dealing Duane Brown for nothing. He has yet to rebuild it and they have suffered ever since. Now he has given away a solid if slightly overrated defensive asset for nothing.

Why? Uncontrollable ego? Stubborness? The idea that he knows better than everyone else? That has not worked out very well so far. Short of winning a Super Bowl, which seems incredibly unlikely, O'Brien has once again set himself to look like the bad guy.

Every villain tries to get on your good side

O'Brien finally landed the much-needed left tackle later in the day when he picked up stud Laremy Tunsil from Miami. But the price was incredibly high. Two first rounders, a second, Julien Davenport and Johnson Bademosi for Tunsil and receiver Kenny Stills. He also dealt Martinas Rankin for running back Carlos Hyde. While adding those two was a huge positive, the price just makes the Clowney trade look worse. Rankin becomes yet another failed third-round pick. They could have gotten a Tunsil like haul for Clowney before the draft and failed. And if they had never traded Brown, this isn't even necessary...so even the good moves make him look like a dictator. A coach who is playing GM (again, see Kelly) does not look ahead.

And thus here we are

He might not be the villain we wanted. But he is the one we have.

And there are no heroes left in the world. We have to hope it all works out.

Most Popular

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome

Listen Live

ESPN Houston 97.5 FM

With so much on the line for the Astros this past weekend, they couldn't possibly get swept by the Royals, could they?

That's exactly what they did thanks to some poor pitching, and an inability to get timely hits with runners in scoring position.

The Astros are currently clinging to the last wild card position as they head to Seattle to face the Mariners, with Justin Verlander on the mound for the 'Stros.

Starting pitching has been the biggest issue for the club as of late, with Hunter Brown looking unusable moving forward. Brown has given up, wait for this, 6 earned runs or more in 3 of his last 4 starts. His ERA for the season is now over 5.

So how will the rotation look over the final stretch of games? We know for the Mariners series the team is rolling out Verlander, Cristian Javier, and Framber Valdez.

The club is off on Thursday, and they head to Arizona for a 3-game series with the Diamondbacks that starts Friday. We predict JP France will pitch Friday, with Justin Verlander likely taking the ball Saturday.

Then all bets are off for Sunday. It could be Framber on 3-days rest, or all hands on deck for a bullpen game.

Of course, with the division race being so close, things could change on a daily basis. There's even a scenario where Arizona secures their wild card, and the final two games of the season don't matter for them.

The other big factor will be the outcome of the 4-game Rangers-Mariners series that finishes off the season.

Be sure to watch the video above as we examine all the scenarios leading up to the end of the regular season for Houston, and much more!

Watch Stone Cold 'Stros (an Astros podcast) every Thursday on SportsMap Houston's YouTube channel.

And listen to ESPN 97.5 and 92.5 FM for Houston's best sports talk.

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome