The Houston Texans are open to possibly trading the number one pick in the draft and that makes for a number of interesting possibilities going forward for teams, including the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings, as all three could trade up for the top pick to select someone like quarterback Teddy Bridgewater or Johnny Manziel.
According to ESPN.com, the Texans said that they would consider trading the number one overall pick in the draft while also still going after a quarterback and it came after the team introduced new head coach Bill O'Brien, who was hired away from Penn State for the fired Gary Kubiak. The Texans made the playoffs in 2012 but lost 14 straight games to finish the season after starting 2-0 and now they have control in the draft with the top pick and general manager Rick Smith said the franchise will look at trades they could use to move down in the draft and that they will listen to offers if teams want to make them.
The Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns could be teams with an interest in moving up to take someone like Teddy Bridgewater or Johnny Manziel and so could the Vikings. The Texans got a terrible season from Matt Schaub and Case Keenum came in as an undrafted rookie and played well for stretches, but could not win a game. The team has had the number one pick before and took David Carr and Mario Williams respectively and now it looks like it could be a quarterback again, even if the team trades down.
Bridgewater looks to be the number one pick and Manziel could go in the top 10 and that makes all those teams options to move up to get the pick. Bridgewater is coming into the draft after another great season and he threw for nearly 4,000 yards and 31 touchdowns and he has nearly 100 for his college career and the 21-year-old is rated by many experts as the top overall player coming out of the draft. Bridgewater ended the season on a high note in the Russell Athletic Bowl against Miami with 447 yards as a career high and three scores and now he could be the number one overall pick, but it might not be with the Texans.
The Texans brought in Bill O'Brien as their new head coach to take over after the team fired Gary Kubiak and now they have the number one picks and with the team looking to add a number of players at spots on the roster, owner Bob McNair said the team would consider trading the pick and here is a look at the move with O'Brien from Reuters.com. Houston Texans named former Penn State University coach Bill O'Brien as their head coach on Friday with hopes he can resurrect a team that had the National Football League's worst record in 2013. O'Brien, who two years ago replaced Joe Paterno at a Penn State football program that was shaken by the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, takes over for Gary Kubiak.
"There's a lot of pieces in place here. 'Quick turnaround,' 'rebuilding' -- I'm not into labels," O'Brien said during his introductory news conference. "I do believe this is a strong roster of players. It'll be fun to evaluate it." O'Brien, a former offensive coordinator with the NFL's New England Patriots, said he will meet with every member of the Texans' coaching staff on Saturday.
Houston won the AFC South division with a 12-4 record in the 2012 season and had lofty expectations coming into the current campaign. But a string of losses cost Kubiak his job, making him the first casualty of the season. After opening the 2013 season with two wins, the Texans went on to lose the next 14 games, the last three under interim coach Wade Philips.
(Reuters)
