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The Houston Texans traded Deshaun Watson this offseason to officially kick off a rebuild, which has thus far been going smoothly. The Texans used their mountain of draft picks on rookie talent and a few free agents have joined the squad. Now they’re just needing a couple tweaks and they’ll be ready for the upcoming season, and ready to see what state their rebuild is in headed into next offseason.
Those changes, for both this year and future can be made through trades, an avenue the Texans have already gone to with the trade of Watson. Here are three trades the Texans may target to round off the roster ahead of the 2022 NFL season.
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Texans Trade Targets To Complete 2022 Roster
1. More draft picks, please
One thing that rebuilding teams need are a whole lot of is draft picks. Luckily, the Texans have plenty! Twelve already in the 2023 draft, but more is always welcome. There are undoubtedly assets that other teams would want off the Texans roster, and for the right price, Lovie Smith and Nick Caserio would likely be willing to part with certain assets.
Particular assets that other teams may target include the likes of Laremy Tunsil and Brandin Cooks. They could fetch the Texans a third and fourth first-round pick, or at the very least a second-round pick each. Of course, whether the Texans would actually trade either of those players is a different story, but we're just here to think out possibilities.
There are, of course, others who could potentially fetch later-round picks. Where the Texans are, they really just need a volume of picks in any round. The trade block is an avenue they've already used to get there, and they could use even more.
2. Receivers
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The Texans have two surefire starters on their roster ahead of the 2022 season, those being the aforementioned Brandin Cooks and rookie John Metchie III, whom the Texans spent the 44th overall pick on. Beyond those two, it's rough to say the least. Not a single pass catcher on the current roster logged more than 450 yards last season with the exception of Cooks, who grabbed over 1,000 yards.
It is thus a priority for the Texans, demonstrated by the Metchie pick, to find weapons for Davis Mills. While free agents such as Julio Jones and a potential reunion with Will Fuller may be in the cards, trade options also exist. Given their wealth of draft picks, the Texans could be a player in trade talks for someone like Deebo Samuel, who still is locked in a contract extension stalemate with the 49ers and requested a trade before the draft.
This is the kind of move that could drastically speed up the Texans' rebuild, and it would undoubtedly give them full clarity on the potential of Davis Mills.
3. Offensive Linemen
Another position group that is not looking very good is the offensive line, outside of a couple veterans like Tunsil and Justin Britt plus a fresh rookie in Kenyon Green, Sure, as mentioned, the left side and middle of the line seem to be set, at least for now, but the right side is far from it. If the Texans can find a good right tackle to make a trade for, they could make the jump from bad to mediocre pretty quickly. Of course, time to throw doesn't matter if you have no one to throw to, but as seen, Davis Mills does have at least two capable pass catchers to target.
If the Texans can find Mills time to throw, they may be able to win more games, which speeds up the rebuild. With the lack of star right tackles on the trade block, it's unlikely that any would require any serious draft capital, preserving the Texans' future draft ambitions in the process.
