It’s one thing for Bill Parcells to want to pick some of his groceries.
It’s another thing for Bill O’Brien to want his own Whole Foods.
When Parcells made his famous statement about team-building, he had already won multiple Super Bowl as a head coach. O’Brien, in his seventh season as the head coach of the Houston Texans, still hasn’t won a playoff game.
Now both head coach and general manager of the Texans, O’Brien’s personnel decisions have crippled the team’s future, and judging by their 0-4 start to the 2020 season, they haven’t helped their chances of success in the present.
The smartest decision the Texans have made with O’Brien calling the shots has been signing Deshaun Watson to a long-term extension, though it was quite the no-brainer. And while the Texans have now locked up one of the best quarterbacks in the league, they’ve left him without an adequate supporting cast, and without the draft resources to maximize Watson’s prime.
It’s not that Laremy Tunsil hasn’t been effective as the team’s starting left tackle, but he’s clearly not making a big enough impact to keep the Texans from going winless so far this season. Thanks to the trade that brought him to Houston, the Texans won’t pick in the 2021 NFL Draft until the third round.
Considering they’re currently in the running to land the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft, that’s a hefty price to pay, on top of the massive extension Lunsil signed back in April.
O’Brien also traded away DeAndre Hopkins, widely regarded as the best wide receiver in the NFL, to the Arizona Cardinals for running back David Johnson and a 2nd-round pick this offseason. O’Brien then flipped one of his second-round picks to the Los Angeles Rams for wide receiver Brandin Cooks and a fourth-round pick.
Cooks is a solid receiver, but Watson already had a speedy target with durability questions in Will Fuller. Swapping out Hopkins, a big target with a massive catch radius, for an undersized deep threat didn’t make the Houston offense any better.
The danger in letting a head coach pick all of his own groceries is that he’ll sacrifice long-term stability for the quick fix and short-term success. Unfortunately for the Texans, O’Brien has left them without either.
Houston is bad now, have traded away their best draft resources with which they could have gotten better later, and in the process are wasting one of the most dynamic and talented players in the league, at the game’s most important position.
Watson deserves far better, and so do Texans fans.
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