The Houston Texans enter the 2021 NFL Draft with more questions than picks, so lets take a look at how they got here.
At the moment, when it comes to the 2021 NFL Draft, Houston Texans fans are like the kids attending a birthday party. They received an invite and will get to eat some cake, but they have to watch someone else open gifts. The best outcome is maybe getting lucky with a goodie bag to take home.
The Houston Texans have draft picks of course, but at least for Day 1 of the 2021 NFL Draft, they are just spectators. Not all great players come from the first round, but having an opportunity to pick sooner rather than later gives a better chance at top end talent. Plus, it is just more fun for fans to look forward to their team’s first round pick.
Examining the draft capital of every NFL team, from the Dolphins (1,352 points) to the Bills (190 points), using the excellent pick value chart developed by @PP_Rich_Hill. pic.twitter.com/rCK3UDNkPj
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 16, 2020
No first round pick, again
The more recent moves from the Houston Texans front office — the Bill O’Brien regime specifically — have been discussed regularly. The Houston Texans franchise have become a running joke due to the repeated head scratching moves. While O’Brien is gone and now in Alabama, the problems he left behind are not.
The Texans enter the 2021 NFL Draft without a first round pick for the third time in four seasons. Those missing picks have been turned into Deshaun Watson and Laremy Tunsil. Watson cost the team an additional first rounder in a trade up with the Cleveland Browns, which became the No. 4 pick the next season. And of course, the Tunsil trade sent two first round picks, including the No. 3 pick this season, to Miami. Miami has since traded that pick to the San Francisco 49ers.
In a vacuum, one would think fans would be happy to have a franchise quarterback and his personal bodyguard in exchange for those picks. The purpose of the draft is to find players like Watson and Tunsil. At least in the case of Watson, the going rate for quarterbacks would say that a player of his caliber came at a bargain.
Unfortunately, its just not that simple. The Houston Texans are coming off of a 4-12 season with these players being healthy, and a cap situation that required a ton of care from new general manager Nick Caserio. Even without the chaos currently surrounding the team’s signal caller, this roster needs life support in the form of draft picks.