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| Photo Credit: Sports Illustrated |
And my NFL offseason series to date:
All right, let's get into this absolute disaster of a trade...
Houston Texans Get: RB David Johnson, 2020 second-round pick, 2021 fourth-round pick
Arizona Cardinals Get: 2020 fourth-round pick, DEANDRE HOPKINS and the Texans eat $10 million in salary? Where the hell am I??
TEXANS GRADE: D-
CARDINALS GRADE: A
Let's start with my tweet on the topic:
Still in shock over the #DeAndreHopkins trade - #DavidJohnson is a RB in the latter quarter of his career. As an aside, look at the #NFL teams heavily invested in RBs: Panthers McCaffrey, Jets Bell, Giants Barkley and Jaguars Fournette - all 4 of those teams didn't make playoffs.— John Frascella (@LegendSports7) March 18, 2020
It's interesting, too, because the Rams cut ties with RB Todd Gurley today; Sean McVay and the boys got the memo - investing heavily in running backs is franchise suicide this day and age! Look around - Damien Williams was a backup RB for the Dolphins when they were an average or below-average team...he became the RB1 for the Super Bowl champs. Raheem Mostert was outright released by multiple NFL teams, and he became a key rusher for the Super Bowl runner-ups. The guy the 49ers did invest in - Jerick McKinnon - hasn't played in two seasons on their payroll. Was it worth it? Just invest lightly in RBs and use a committee that keeps guys fresh throughout the year.
Which leads us to this travesty of a trade...Bill O'Brien obviously didn't get the memo. He thinks this is a fantasy draft from 2017 - that must be why he's so high on David Johnson, a RB who is clearly on the backside of his career. He's been an extremely productive player over the years, but we all know running backs have short lifespans in terms of top-tier performance. Johnson has clearly fallen out of the A1 group at his position. In all likelihood, he's probably not even in tier 2 at this point.
That's not to say O'Brien won't get any value out of him - of course, coach and GM will want to justify his move by force feeding Johnson in a number of different ways. But how did that go for the Jets with Le'Veon Bell? He's a veteran RB they invested in and - especially early on - he was getting all he could eat. All that did was tire his veteran legs and make him useless for at least half the season. Gotta keep these veteran guys fresh, and I doubt O'Brien will have the restraint to do that, especially after getting savaged by the media for this deal. Johnson will be worth a look in fantasy drafts for his role alone, but there's just no comparison to DeAndre Hopkins in real-world value.
I'm a big wide receiver guy. Essentially, most of these teams live and die by their quarterbacks, but I'll put wide receivers up there with any other position in terms of importance. Again, let's look around...final four teams: Chiefs (Tyreek Hill, one of the best), Packers (Davante Adams, another of the best), Titans (A.J. Brown, breakout player). Further on down the line, other playoff teams: Texans (Hopkins, another of the best), Vikings (Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen), Saints (Michael Thomas, out of this world), Seahawks (Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf), the list goes on.
I mean, I'm working off the top of my head here, but I'd say Thomas, Hopkins, Adams and Hill are the best receivers in the game, with Julio Jones being the only megastar at his position to miss the postseason (and he's been there multiple times).
But clearly, again, O'Brien missed the memo. I totally understand that Hopkins was looking to command a boatload of money - nevertheless, this was a rushed deal. You have one of the absolute best football players in the world - you need to play the field. You need to dangle him everywhere. You can't be grabbing the first piece of fruit hanging from the tree - a trade returning a near washed-up running back.
Obviously, the only reason I didn't give O'Brien an F is the picks. The Texans had to win that part of the trade, otherwise the league would have exploded in protest. So yeah, he won that part of it by default. That gets ya from an F down to a D-. But given a deal like this, can you really count on O'Brien and his front office team to get key players in the second and fourth rounds? Deshaun Watson was a strong first-round selection, but that's supposed to be the "easy" round. Will you be shocked if the Texans miss on these second and fourth round picks?
Who would be, after this?
It all comes down to this...if you single-cover Hopkins, he's gonna burn you. If you double or stack, you may be able to keep him quiet...but what about the rest of the field? No matter what, Hopkins opens things up for his coaches and teammates. Kliff Kingsbury has to be salivating right now.
My hat's off to Arizona. I've defended Bill O'Brien in the past - but this time, I just can't.
Which leads us to this travesty of a trade...Bill O'Brien obviously didn't get the memo. He thinks this is a fantasy draft from 2017 - that must be why he's so high on David Johnson, a RB who is clearly on the backside of his career. He's been an extremely productive player over the years, but we all know running backs have short lifespans in terms of top-tier performance. Johnson has clearly fallen out of the A1 group at his position. In all likelihood, he's probably not even in tier 2 at this point.
That's not to say O'Brien won't get any value out of him - of course, coach and GM will want to justify his move by force feeding Johnson in a number of different ways. But how did that go for the Jets with Le'Veon Bell? He's a veteran RB they invested in and - especially early on - he was getting all he could eat. All that did was tire his veteran legs and make him useless for at least half the season. Gotta keep these veteran guys fresh, and I doubt O'Brien will have the restraint to do that, especially after getting savaged by the media for this deal. Johnson will be worth a look in fantasy drafts for his role alone, but there's just no comparison to DeAndre Hopkins in real-world value.
I'm a big wide receiver guy. Essentially, most of these teams live and die by their quarterbacks, but I'll put wide receivers up there with any other position in terms of importance. Again, let's look around...final four teams: Chiefs (Tyreek Hill, one of the best), Packers (Davante Adams, another of the best), Titans (A.J. Brown, breakout player). Further on down the line, other playoff teams: Texans (Hopkins, another of the best), Vikings (Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen), Saints (Michael Thomas, out of this world), Seahawks (Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf), the list goes on.
I mean, I'm working off the top of my head here, but I'd say Thomas, Hopkins, Adams and Hill are the best receivers in the game, with Julio Jones being the only megastar at his position to miss the postseason (and he's been there multiple times).
But clearly, again, O'Brien missed the memo. I totally understand that Hopkins was looking to command a boatload of money - nevertheless, this was a rushed deal. You have one of the absolute best football players in the world - you need to play the field. You need to dangle him everywhere. You can't be grabbing the first piece of fruit hanging from the tree - a trade returning a near washed-up running back.
Obviously, the only reason I didn't give O'Brien an F is the picks. The Texans had to win that part of the trade, otherwise the league would have exploded in protest. So yeah, he won that part of it by default. That gets ya from an F down to a D-. But given a deal like this, can you really count on O'Brien and his front office team to get key players in the second and fourth rounds? Deshaun Watson was a strong first-round selection, but that's supposed to be the "easy" round. Will you be shocked if the Texans miss on these second and fourth round picks?
Who would be, after this?
It all comes down to this...if you single-cover Hopkins, he's gonna burn you. If you double or stack, you may be able to keep him quiet...but what about the rest of the field? No matter what, Hopkins opens things up for his coaches and teammates. Kliff Kingsbury has to be salivating right now.
My hat's off to Arizona. I've defended Bill O'Brien in the past - but this time, I just can't.
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