Why the Houston Texans stood pat at the trade deadline

The Houston Texans decided to not make any moves at Tuesday’s trade deadline.

With the trade deadline now over, the Houston Texans decided to stand pat and not make any additional moves. However, the Texans were very active leading up to the deadline by acquiring Gareon Conley, Laremy Tunsil, Duke Johnson, Kenny Stills, Carlos Hyde, and trading Jadeveon Clowney to the Seattle Seahawks as the season started.

Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, the Texans were linked to New York Jets running back Le’Veon Bell, but that didn’t end up happening. The Texans could have bolstered their secondary with pieces such as Janoris Jenkins or Chris Harris, but the asking price was reportedly significantly high for each cornerback.

The most likely scenario for the Texans to add another cornerback would have been Josh Norman of the Washington Redskins. At 31, Norman is well past his prime and under a sizeable contract in Washington. The Redskins have surrendered the seventh-most touchdown passes and are allowing the second-worst completion percentage to opposing quarterbacks in 2019.

Their Texans ‘ secondary has struggled with health, but Texans surely don’t want to be stuck with Norman’s $12 million he’s set to make in 2020. It made sense for the Texans to be conservative as they’re stuck with limited draft picks and would likely be landing a player whose asking price is much greater than the value they would provide on the field in Norman.

Not to mention the difficulty of getting a player acclimated into the team’s system mid-season, which Texans fans saw last season with Demaryius Thomas before his Achilles injury that prematurely ended his season.