It’s becoming more clear that the Texans would like to trade the top pick in the draft to someone who wants defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.
Texans owner Bob McNair addressed the team’s plans on Friday. While intending to say nothing, he said plenty.
“Really at this point we don’t know and we really won’t know until right up at the time we have to make a decision because people are talking to us about the possibility of trading down and it’s a question of what people offer, whether their offer is such that it’s worthwhile to trade down,” McNair told FOX 26 in Houston regarding the team’s plans for the pick.
The more McNair talked, the more obvious it became that the plan is to trade the ability to select Clowney for the chance to get a quarterback, plus extra picks -- or to take Clowney and then trade him to a team that drafts the player the Texans prefer. Presumably, a quarterback.
“You take a guy like Clowney,” McNair said. “He’s obviously the best player in the draft, but he’s a defensive end. He’s not a quarterback. If he’s a quarterback and the best player it’s easy, but that’s not the case. So can that defensive player have a greater impact on the success of your team than one of these quarterbacks? It’s not a sure thing that he is. . . . If somebody wants you to drop down and they give you two or three more picks that would let you get two or three more quality players, are you a stronger team dropping down a little bit, getting these additional picks and getting more depth?”
Even if the Texans trade down to get a quarterback, McNair has concerns.
“You got three quarterbacks and all of them have some holes in their resume,” McNair said. “A quarterback that goes out and performs for you and is a franchise quarterback is more valuable than a player playing another position, but there’s a lot more risk there. It’s a more difficult position to play and there are lot more failures.
“You drop down and there’s another group close behind, not exactly where they are, and maybe one of those quarterbacks will become better than one of these other three,” McNair said. “There are no slam dunks. There are no Andrew Lucks out there, no Peyton Mannings. If there were it would be an easy decision, but that’s not the case.”
Regardless of how it plays out, McNair remains confident that the Texans will emerge from the three-day player-acquisition exercise in much better shape.
“I think that we’re going to greatly strengthen our team as a result of the draft,” McNair said. “We’ve got 11 picks now in the draft and it’s a deep draft. So we’re going to get some good players regardless as to what we do. If we trade down and pick up two or three more players, we’d have 13 or 14 [draft picks]. So you’re going to see some significant strengthening of our team as a result of this draft.”
How much stronger depends on whether the Texans make the right move with the first No. 1 overall pick they’ve earned in eight years.