The Houston Texans trading cornerback Bradley Roby to the New Orleans Saints was one of the more surprising moves of the first week of the 2021 regular season — and the games haven’t even been played yet.
The Texans sent the former 2014 first-round pick to the Saints for a 2022 third-round pick and a conditional 2023 sixth-round selection.
Safety Justin Reid was bewildered when he heard the news.
“Honestly, it caught me off guard,” Reid said. “But that kind of is not my job to even think about. My job is to think about what we are going to do this week. He wasn’t really even playing in this game to begin with, so it doesn’t change our scheme per se on what we are planning on going forward.”
Roby would have missed the Week 1 showdown with the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Central Time at NRG Stadium. The cornerback was serving the final game of a six-game suspension that was handed down with five games to go in the 2020 regular season. Roby was suspended by the NFL for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
Just as if Roby would have stayed, the Texans are banking on their “next man up” philosophy.
Said Reid: “We got who we got, next guys up are fully capable, and they are going to step up and we are going to ride with them.”
Cornerback Vernon Hargreaves was similarly stunned when he found out.
“I was surprised,” said Hargreaves. “I was surprised a little bit, but that’s the business. I’ve been playing long enough to know that things like that happen. I mean, it was surprising at first, but you got to keep going, continue on. We’ve got a season to play.”
Roby signed a three-year, $36 million contract in the 2020 offseason. The Texans will pick up the $7 million on his cap hit while the Saints will take the remaining $1.8 million-plus.