Bill O'Brien didn't receive much praise for his trade that shipped out DeAndre Hopkins, Houston's All-Pro receiver, yet he cautions a familiar lesson: Time will tell.
O'Brien spoke Thursday about the trade, the second time he's been asked to address the swap with Arizona since it was agreed to in March shortly after the start of free agency. His main takeaway: The trade was worth the haul.
"We feel very, very good about being able to get the 40th pick, being able to get David Johnson," O'Brien said. "We feel really good about when we looked at the analytics of it, based on the production that was leaving our team and the production that we were bringing in, and then what we were able to do. Again, it's very incomplete, and we have several roster moves left to go, including a draft and all the other things that I mentioned earlier. So we feel very good about the value that we got from the trade.
"I think the best thing I can tell the fans is to please -- because I know the media's job is to evaluate right away, I get that, I have a lot of respect for the media, I've always said that -- but I think we have to let it all play out. Let it play out. Let the whole thing play out, whether it's that trade or anything else that we've done. I'd say let's review it a year from now, two years from now, three years from now. Let's let it all play out."
O'Brien ascended from simply the head coach of the Texans to head coach and general manager after the departure of Brian Gaine last year, and he's taken full advantage of that new power to remake the roster he coaches. The Hopkins trade was his biggest move, and also his biggest risk. As he said, we'll have to let the chips fall where they may before ultimately deciding whether the move -- giving up a superstar receiver in exchange for an oft-injured running back and much-needed draft capital -- was worth it.