Peter King: O'Brien's Off-Season Depends On Johnson, Cooks Production

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(SportsRadio 610) -- With the Texans trading DeAndre Hopkins for the fourth-highest paid running back in football, and later replacing Hopkins by trading for Brandin Cooks, Bill O'Brien is relying on two scenarios:

A healthy Cooks who returns to his 2018 form, and Johnson re-emerging as one of the best backs in the game, which he was in 2016.

Peter King of NBC Sports wrote in his weekly column that he doesn't expect these deals to amount to anything short of regretful.
Here's what King had to say on Football Morning in America:

"Eliminating the fluff, Houston acquired Cooks, running back David Johnson, an early second-round pick this year and a fourth-rounder in 2022 for Hopkins and a late second-rounder this year.

"For this to not be a colossal mistake for Houston coach Bill O’Brien, Cooks must not get concussed in the next two seasons, and Johnson needs to be a top 10 running back. Both of those things need to happen, and I’m not confident they will.

"Hopkins will be motivated to have the best year of his life in 2020, if there is football, and he should be the deep threat Kliff Kingsbury lacks. It’s easy to look at these trades and think Houston got fleeced. I’m on that side. But if there’s a season this year, and Cooks catches 80 passes for 1,150 yards and eight touchdowns, and Johnson rushes for 1,100 yards, and the Texans makes the playoffs—now, all of those things are possible but not likely—then O’Brien will be relatively redeemed. But that’s a lot of ifs."

Former Texans wide receiver Cecil Shorts III joined Clint Stoerner on Tuesday afternoon and struck a different tone.

Shorts said he was happy to see the Texans make a move for a productive wide receiver, though it's not exactly replacing Hopkins.