Duane Brown update

[barrett]

Originally Posted by chuck

I'll say this again. Duane Brown was the best offensive lineman on the field yesterday, on either team. And it was not close. And he hadn't played in nearly a year.

The Texans have a quarterback who is probably top five in the league TODAY, and they risk getting him permanently disfigured with the cast of rejects and horrible second round picks they masquerade as an offensive line.

Lane is terrible. That's not to say he won't improve the team's secondary. For all I know he'll distinguish himself as the team's best corner. But, as we saw yesterday, he was benched by the Seahawks in favor of an unheralded rookie.

And speaking of second round picks, the one the team garners with this trade won't make an impact for years, and once he does, based on history, it's difficult to say whether that impact will in fact be largely positive.

Of course the team could bundle that pick with others and try to make a move in next year's draft. As usual there are plenty of holes, and I haven't looked at which FA OL and CB/S are poised to be available next year. But for once in our lives as Texans fans the most important position is spoken for, loudly. And I'd sort of like to keep him out of the hospital if at all possible. And swapping Duane Brown for Chris Clark or Kendall Lamm or whoever TF they bring in is not going to cut it.

I see this as punting on this season and, significantly, exposing your best player to unnecessary risk in order to satisfy a blood lust for someone who publicly shamed the organization. As I would have predicted, the necks love it. Good riddance! Harrumph! they cry. But, as I said, this is a shining example of what I have always maintained - the owner is not principally concerned with winning.

Brown was our best OL Sunday. He'd be our best OL the rest of the year. That's not up for debate.

Brown was the 14th rated OT last year. There is no way he was going to be better as he got older. He'll play at most 10 games this year after playing 12 last year and 14 the year before. None of those things are up for debate.

I will not pretend the comments this week were not a part of him getting dealt. I think Brown made those comments to get out (I'm not saying he doesn't believe them, but I think he knew it was a get out of jail free card). I am amazed that with McNair's comment and Brown's comments swirling we got a 2nd and a 5th.

I have no problem with punting on this season. This season was lost as soon as Watt and Mercilous got hurt. I'm also not overly worried this exposes Watson. The odds that he gets hurt on the 2-3 extra sacks and 10-15 extra hits (maximum) that Watson takes with Clark vs Brown are very small. The odds that whatever injury he might take because of Clark playing being an injury that affects him going forward after this season are even smaller. I think the odds those picks help us more than Duane Brown in 2018 and beyond are way higher than the odds Watson is hurt in 2018 and beyond because Duane Brown wasn't here in 2017.

And again, I say you'd complain just as loudly with the same complaints if we traded a 2nd round pick for a mostly used up guy on the back end of his career.