Thoughts as the Texans approach the trade deadline

The preaching of optimism and threading the needle on need versus desire

I am hard on this Texans team. I am hard on them because they a) have the opportunity to do something special and b) are so clearly talented enough to take those steps. The defense has lived up to their side of the bargain — second in defensive DVOA, good against both the run and the pass — living up to my preseason optimism despite plenty of injuries. This team has C.J. Stroud, Nico Collins, Joe Mixon, Laremy Tunsil, and a huge amount of investment around them. Even with Stefon Diggs’ ACL tear and a month of Collins on IR, they are too talented to be 20th in offensive DVOA, stuck with an offensive line that makes it almost impossible to pass on a down-to-down basis.

And if this team can perform like I think they can on offense, in a year where the Ravens haven’t settled their defense and the Chiefs haven’t settled their offense around Patrick Mahomes, anything can happen.

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Normally when a piece starts like this, I would take it in and think “this writer is going to demand the future be mortgaged.” But I’m not going to do that. In fact, I don’t think any non-Day 3 picks should be available. I don’t think mortgaging your future in that way works in the NFL, and I think the original Laremy Tunsil trade is proof alone that you can do so much more damage by not having those picks than you can make up with on sure-fire veteran top talent anywhere but quarterback. I think of Seattle’s disastrous strikes for Jamal Adams and Jimmy Graham. Of Arizona giving up a first-round pick for Hollywood Brown. Of Kansas City giving up a first-round pick for Orlando Brown. Of uh (covers the ears of some sensitive readers) the Texans giving up a second-round pick for what now amounts to eight games of Stefon Diggs.

When the Patriots were built, it was a marriage of successful high-round picks and trades for undervalued veterans. They got Randy Moss for a fourth-round pick, then they drafted Rob Gronkowski. Caserio has kind of splashed out of his training pond there with the Will Anderson and Diggs trades of late, but I think team-building in the NFL may really be as simple as I wrote it in that first line of the paragraph: The high-round picks need to finance the space for the undervalued veterans. You will miss a certain number of them, c’est la vie, hope it isn’t too many of them or you’ll become the 2024 Bengals.

What can be done about the offensive line?