1. Trading DeAndre Hopkins to Arizona Cardinals
It shouldn’t matter what the personal feelings are between a head coach and player when it comes to being professional in the NFL. There is a job to do, and to be honest, both could have handled the situation better than it turned out for the Texans.
When Bill O’Brien made breaking Texans news headlines this offseason when he traded DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for David Johnson and draft picks, well, to this day many Texans fans aren’t happy about the decision.
So much has been said about this decisions that it doesn’t need another full rehash, but from all things considered, it came down to contract issues and even some personal feelings. It doesn’t make a lot of sense when you have an elite wide receiver like DeAndre Hopkins to work with him on some sort of new deal, especially with Deshaun Watson as a quarterback. That is what happened, Hopkins — an All-Pro receiver at that — was traded, and the rest is wait-and-see.
Not often does one of the very best at his position get traded in the offseason, but now the Texans have to prove they made the right choice as they will be looking to Brandin Cooks and Will Fuller as their top two receivers for the 2020 season.
The Texans won’t be the same at wide receiver without Hopkins, and though Fuller and Cooks are good at what they do as a wide receiver, neither are at the same level of what Hopkins offers.
For that, the Texans’ worst decision was trading Hopkins, instead of O’Brien and the wide reciever getting together and working out some sort of agreement and contract issue.