When the Houston Texans traded DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for David Johnson, Twitter raked Houston head coach Bill O’Brien over the coals.
The internet loves to pile on dumb people, and today, those dumb people are the Houston Texans.
Houston has a problem, as in a Bill O’Brien problem. The Texans head coach has too much power for his own good and the McNair Family has let him do pretty much whatever he wants as long as he wins the AFC South two out of every three years. Yes, this apparently now includes trading wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for running back David Johnson.
This is a deal Houston can never come back from. It does not matter the Texans landed a second-round pick for a supposedly disgruntled player in Hopkins. The Texans just traded one of the three best players in franchise history to the Cardinals for a running back who hasn’t been good since 2016 on one of the worst contracts in football. O’Brien made a GOB Bluth huge mistake.
In typical Twitter fashion, Houston was rightfully ridiculed for such stupidity on Houston’s part.
I love how Bill O’Brien used the slowest sports news cycle ever to trade DeAndre Hopkins and successfully piledrive his own approval rating into the Earth’s core
— Pablo Torre 🏴☠️ (@PabloTorre) March 16, 2020
Literally Nobody: I'll take on David Johnson's contract for free
— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) March 16, 2020
Bill O'Brien: I'll give you DeAndre Hopkins for the right to take on David Johnson's contract
Violating my own media rule here: the relationship between Bill O’Brien and DeAndre Hopkins was not good, and I’ve heard that from multiple places.
— Mike Meltser (@MikeMeltser) March 16, 2020
My own take: Bill O’Brien hasn’t accomplished enough in his life in football to have a bad relationship with a tremendous player
Bill O'Brien and the Texans had one of the best QB-WR combos in the league and they just traded DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals ... pic.twitter.com/OlmKILiaoO
— SB Nation (@SBNation) March 16, 2020
— PFF (@PFF) March 16, 2020
Texans trading DeAndre Hopkins to Arizona... (h/t @AdamSchefter) pic.twitter.com/pkP3Ng1uAK
— FanSided (@FanSided) March 16, 2020
Imagine having a 24-0 lead on the road in the playoffs over the future Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs and blowing the game and thinking...
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 16, 2020
you know what would give us a better shot to win this game in 2020?
RB David Johnson instead of DeAndre Hopkins
I’ve had Bill O’Brien on trial ever since he started Tom Savage (yes, Tom Savage) over Deshaun Watson during Watson’s rookie year.
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) March 16, 2020
Today, O’Brien has been convicted, found guilty of being a complete and absolute fool!! #Texans #DeAndreHopkins
Twitter: The Texans are trading for David Johnson and taking on his entire salary.
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) March 16, 2020
Me: Oh. Weird. The Cardinals must be throwing in something good to make that happen.
Twitter: Actually, the Texans are sending DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals... pic.twitter.com/GoIPNWwMkF
Imagine making a trade where you could have paid DeAndre Hopkins $12.5M this year, but instead you’re choosing to pay David Johnson $11.25M.
— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 16, 2020
David Johnson for DeAndre Hopkins would get vetoed in most fantasy leagues with the team managers barred for life.
— Adam Rank (@adamrank) March 16, 2020
like 20 minutes ago we were all like "lol if the Texans give up ANYTHING in the deal where they take on David Johnson's salary they're idiots" and then it turns out they're giving up DeAndre Hopkins
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) March 16, 2020
In the midst of a pandemic, the trade for DeAndre Hopkins makes AZ the happiest sports town on Earth at the moment. You can't say that very often
— Dan Bickley (@danbickley) March 16, 2020
even madden didn't accept the deandre hopkins trade pic.twitter.com/47IX17n2wE
— Jordan Heck (@JordanHeckFF) March 16, 2020
These tweets were more savage than starting Tom Savage over Deshaun Week 1 over the 2017 NFL season. Savage lasted a half before Deshaun Watson relieved the overwhelmed quarterback. You can say the iconic #Sacksonville defense of 2017 was birthed by O’Brien’s incompetence. His Houston quarterbacks went down 10 times in that ball game. And this beating by Twitter is worse.
Hopkins has the best hands in football. He joins an NFL team on the rise in Arizona with a franchise quarterback in Kyler Murray, a Pro Bowl-caliber running back in Kenyan Drake, an innovative offensive-minded head coach in Kliff Kingsbury and one of the greatest wide receivers in NFL history in Larry Fitzgerald. This is one of the greatest days in Cardinals football history.
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If there was a move to torpedo a team’s chances of repeating in a division, this was it. Texans fans were looking forward to free agency and now will be the butt of everyone’s joke for at least the next calendar year. The Texans have assured themselves they will remain the only team in the NFL to have never reached a conference title game. Houston is nowhere near a final four team now.