Should the Texans have kept draft picks over Laremy Tunsil?
Houston Texans and the 2021 NFL Draft
As of this writing the Houston Texans have hired a new general manager, still don’t have a head coach, and won’t make a draft pick until the third round, but that could all change in the coming weeks.
Losing the third overall pick and the 35th pick really hurts the Houston Texans because they need to fill voids so much on defense, especially on the defensive line and the secondary.
J.J. Watt next season is in the final year of his contract and it will also be his 11th season in the NFL. Watt could possibly be traded to another team this offseason and the Texans could gain some sort of draft pick from that possible deal, but that conversation is down the road in the coming months.
The secondary of the Texans was at fault as well in 2020 because they never seemed to be on the same page, or even looking at the same playbook. Houston’s secondary was disappointing as an entire unit. It is obvious that changes need and will be made, so an early draft selection would have been great to have this April.
The offense of the Houston Texans isn’t out of this conversation either because the rushing game was terrible, and one of the very worst — the 31st ranked rushing yards per game offense — as they averaged 91.6 yards per game rushing, finishing with 1,466 total rushing yards as a team.
In 12 games, running back David Johnson — whom was a part of the DeAndre Hopkins trade — was the leading rusher for the Houston Texans with 691 yards on 147 carries, averaging 4.7 yards per carry. Next was quarterback Deshaun Watson with 444 yards on 90 carries in 16 games for 4.9 ypr. Johnson finished with six rushing scores, and Watson had three.
Again, if the Texans would have had last year’s first round pick, and the two upcoming first and second round choices possessed by the Dolphins, things would be a lot different for the Houston Texans. Again, the deal comes back to Watson and how healthy would he have stayed without Tunsil on the offensive line?