Texans Trade of Laremy Tunsil is Surprising, Risky, and Necessary
Plus the actual free agent moves the Texans made
The Houston Texans made one of the biggest moves on the first day of free agency trading left tackle Laremy Tunsil to the Washington Commanders. Houston attached this year’s pick in the fourth round and got back a third-round pick and seventh-round pick this season and a second-round pick and fourth-round pick next season.
It was a surprising move to send the best offensive lineman from one of the league’s worst offensive lines, but it was also necessary.
Tunsil has been the best lineman on good teams and bad teams. His success has always been the most important aspect of his season. He’s desired All-Pro consideration and takes note of offseason slights from writers. Tunsil is most proud of his title as the two-time highest-paid lineman. He’s never lit up more than when talking about his money.
With the pride in his money comes his price tag. It wouldn’t get cheaper to have him around, and the Texans have huge contracts upcoming. C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson should be hitting the negotiating table next offseason and Derek Stingley Jr. should get a new deal this year. If the Texans are lucky, that's just over half a billion dollars in new deals on those three players alone. And I am being conservative.
The time to move from Tunsil was coming, and the Texans opted to maximize their return with his contract covering two more seasons.
Tunsil’s departure was also necessary now for a culture shift on the offensive line. His penalty issues never improved twice leading the league in total penalties and constantly being in the top ten of most penalized players.
His teammates on the offensive line weren’t held accountable by their captain. Tunsil blamed centers, plural, for his false starts. Well, shouldn’t he work with the center to fix it? He was a captain but the room was in disarray from the beginning. Did he hold anyone accountable? Unlikely. His mistakes were on teammates and referees, why would he ask teammates to shore up their performance? Other players emulated him but didn’t possess his talent at their position making their carefree performances maddening.
Head coach DeMeco Ryans mentioned the offensive line room will have “one voice to lead” when he talked about offensive line coach Cole Popovich’s promotion to the position. Was there more to former offensive line coach Chris Strausser’s failure? Was Tunsil a dissenting voice that never allowed the coaching of the offensive line to set in? Popovich, the assistant offensive line coach last year, would know.