The Houston Texans have a better sense of direction after the weekend.
The Texans completed their trade with the Dallas Cowboys to send receiver Brandin Cooks up Interstate 45 for a 2023 fifth-rounder and a 2024 sixth-rounder. Houston also managed to sign three-time Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil to a three-year extension worth $75 million.
The offensive line is in place, but Houston still needs to address their receiving corps following the departure of Cooks.
According to Doug Farrar from the Touchdown Wire, the Texans use their proprietary selection at No. 2 overall to take Alabama quarterback Bryce Young. Houston gets their future face of the franchise and ostensibly high level locker room presence. Houston then uses their No. 12 overall selection — obtained via 2022 offseason trade with the Cleveland Browns — to take receiver Jordan Addison from USC.
The Texans have to give Bryce Young more than Brandin Cooks, Chris Moore, and Nico Collins as their 1-2-3 punch at receiver (especially after they traded Cooks to the Cowboys), and that process starts here. Addison isn’t the biggest receiver in this class at 5-foot-11 and 173 pounds, but he is an absolute route architect who can get open anywhere on the field. Last season, he caught 59 passes for 875 yards and eight touchdowns, with nine of those catches for 370 yards and two touchdowns coming on passes of 20 or more air yards. Young will immediately appreciate how Addison expands the expected catch radius, not that Young needs it.
Jordan Addison is the best receiver in the draft. pic.twitter.com/t1VS2iJsED
— Ramey (@HoodieRamey) February 27, 2023
Addison would fulfill the Texans’ needs of having a younger, talented receiver with speed who could replace Cooks’ production, at least as far as 2022 is concerned.
The next receiver taken off the board was Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba with the Green Bay Packers. TCU’s Quentin Johnston goes No. 21 overall to the Los Angeles Chargers.
