Texans’ Bill O’Brien got mad and stormed off on TV during the draft
Apr 24, 2020, 9:14 PM
It hasn’t been a banner offseason for Texans head coach and general manager Bill O’Brien.
After his DeAndre Hopkins trade was the butt of the joke around the league, O’Brien sent a second-round pick to the Rams for wide receiver Brandin Cooks. That was a head-scratcher when you consider the Texans didn’t get more than a second-rounder and an expensive running back for Hopkins, a superior receiver.
Then, on live TV during the NFL Draft on Friday, O’Brien appeared to be pretty upset.
Watch:
The NFL's top GM, Bill O'Brien seems mad.pic.twitter.com/kamJUZqi6c
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) April 25, 2020
NFL reporter Dov Kleiman called O’Brien “the NFL’s top GM,” surely sarcastically. O’Brien stormed off and appeared to say something about fudge or funds or funky.
Later, the Houston Chronicle’s John McClain reported that the Texans had a trade agreement with Detroit for the 90th pick but the Lions pulled out of the deal last-minute. “O’Brien was furious,” McClain wrote.
Yikes.
In defense of O’Brien, it’s easy to imagine that these things happen around the league from time to time, although most general managers don’t have their feuds captured in real time on national television. Wrong place, wrong time for O’Brien, who continues to take a beating.
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Predictably, Twitter users speculated that the actual reason O’Brien was upset was that he suddenly came to the sobering realization that he is to blame for his team’s awful trade of Hopkins.
O’Brien doesn’t even get to welcome a first-round pick into his building whenever the NFL season gets underway, because the Texans traded their 2020 first-round pick to Miami to get Kenny Stills and Laremy Tunsil.
The Texans’ first selection in the 2020 draft was Ross Blacklock, a second-round defensive tackle taken 40th overall out of TCU. That pick was the Cardinals’ pick from the Hopkins deal. At the 90th selection, Houston took Florida edge-rusher Jonathan Greenard.
