Houston Is Eyeing The NFL Trade Deadline...

The NFL trade deadline hits this afternoon at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, and the Houston Texans still haven't decided what kind of season this is for them. On Sunday in Los Angeles, they gave everyone a pretty strong hint, beating the Chargers 44-22. They sacked the quarterback eight times, which ties the most in a game in franchise history. And two of those sacks came from Jadavion Clowney. That's the part that matters the most ahead of this deadline, because teams have already called the Houston Texans about Jadavion Clowney. NFL Network's Mike Garafolo said the Texans have turned those calls away for now and that this is the exact game that could swing whether or not they trade at all. That exact game was against the Chargers and they won it by 22 and the pass rush looked good. As good as anyone else in the league. On the ground though, this team runs for just 87.1 yards a game. That's 29th out of 32 in the NFL. So by 4 o'clock this afternoon, do the Houston Texans trade for a running back like Tony Pollard or Brees Hall? And if they do, is a player like Jadavion Clowney going to be the one that gets traded for it? Even in a 44-point win against the Chargers, the offensive run was a quiet part of the game. CJ Stroud threw for 384 yards and five touchdowns, the kind of day that wins a game by itself. And Woody Marks ran for 70 yards in that game. That was his best day of the season so far. Over the full season, Woody Marks is averaging 3.6 yards a carry, which puts him in the bottom half of the league's regular backs. As a rookie last year, he led the team with 703 rushing yards, and the run game still finished 22nd in the NFL. Houston ran for about 109 yards a game last year, so this offense has lost about 22 yards a game on the ground this season. David Montgomery was brought in to share this backfield, and right now, he's still out with a groin injury. DeMeco Ryans says that he hopes Montgomery can practice this week or next, which still Still isn't a return date. And even though a lot of Houston Texans fans would want it, Joe Mixon isn't an option either. Houston released him last year, and he still counts for $2 million in dead money on this year's cap. That's how the third leading rusher on this team ended up being the quarterback. CJ Stroud has 100 rushing yards this season, only 38 fewer than the back who was supposed to be carrying the load with Woody Marks. For an offense built around CJ Stroud, that's the real problem, because the defense doesn't have to worry about About the run and can instead just wait for the pass. Because Albert Breer reported that the Texans checked the price on some running backs and some safeties before today's NFL trade deadline. Checking prices on other players is only meant for a team that still thinks it's playing for something. And a month ago, a lot of people didn't know if the Houston Texans fell in that boat. Because as we've talked about multiple times on this channel, the Houston Texans started off this season 0-4. They lost their third game of the season to the Indianapolis Colts 19-17. And then the week after that, they lost to the Dallas Cowboys Since then, however, they've won three out of their last four games. And only one loss was in overtime against the Giants. One of those wins was a 34-31 shootout in Jacksonville's home away from home in London, a divisional game that they couldn't afford to drop. Nick Casario already acted like a buyer once, trading for Marvin Harrison Jr. in October, which we've gone over in depth on this channel before. Marvin Harrison Jr. was the fourth overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and played with Stroud at Ohio State. The Houston Texans' next games are Cleveland this Sunday and then the Colts at home on Thursday night. Win both games against the Colts and the Browns and Houston is back at 5 and 5, which is exactly why they're not selling out pieces. They're instead looking to trade for some. Out of all the backs who could realistically be moved before tonight, only two of them make sense for Houston, and they are very different buys. The first is Tony Pollard in Tennessee. The Titans are 1 and 7 right now, which is about as clear as a seller as anyone in the league. Pollard is 29 and in the final year of his contract, so Tennessee isn't building around him anymore and this typically is where we see running backs start to decline a little bit, but not with Tony Pollard so far, because he's playing the best football of this season right now. In Tony's last two games, he ran for 129 yards against Cleveland and then 117 yards against Cincinnati. And the cherry on top, he scored five rushing touchdowns in those two games alone. Over the whole season, he's at 4.5 yards a carry, almost an entire full yard better than what Woody Marks And he's averaging 74.4 rushing yards a game. This against what he marks 42.6. In his 595 rushing yards in 8 games, are more than Woody Marks and David Montgomery combined. Houston has seen the other side of him too. In the 26-3 win at Tennessee in October, the defense held him to just 52 yards. Put him in the backfield with Marks, and with David Montgomery coming back soon, that leaves Houston with a very solid running back core full of three guys. Tony Pollard counts for $9.25 million against the cap this year, and his deal ends after this season. That means nothing on the 2027 books. Which is where Houston's big bills are going to start landing. The price shouldn't scare anyone away either. Breer wrote that the other teams figured out that they would have to trade at least a fourth round pick to get him out of Tennessee. But there's one problem. Last night, the Titans said that they do not intend to trade Tony Pollard. General Manager Mike Borgonzi said he hasn't picked up the phone to shop anyone since trading away Jeffrey Simmons. And they may mean it. Sasha Rams pointed out that Pollard matters to the growth of their young quarterback, Cam Ward. Still. Not shopping a player is a long way from hanging up the phone on a fair trade for a 29-year-old running back on an expiring contract. Last Thursday, before the statement, a prediction market had Tony Pollard at a 66% to be traded this season. And if the Tennessee Titans hold firm, there's another back that Houston's already called about once. At last year's trade deadline, the Houston Chronicles reported that the Houston Texans called the Jets at least once about Brees Hall. The Jets were rumored to want a third-round pick, and Houston thought that that was too high. A year later, Hall looks like a worse buy, not a better one. He's played in only the first four games of the season for the Jets. The first three, and then not again until Sunday. In those games, he's averaging 3.4 yards a carry, the lowest of the backs in this story. That's lower than the Texans' current lead back, so he wouldn't fix anything by himself. Even as a receiver, he's caught 13 passes for 128 yards across those four games. On Sunday's loss to Kansas City, Hall had 10 carries for 33 yards in a 35-12 loss. After that game, Hall said that the Jets went away from their bread and butter, which is running the ball. Then there's his contract. And this is where the gap with Pollard really opens up. Hall counts for $11.5 million against the cap this season. Next year, that jumps up to $14.5 million. And then $15.5 million in 2028. 2027, Will Anderson Jr.'s cap number goes up from $13.2 million to $28.3 million. And Danielle Hunter's jumps up to $45 million that same year. Stroud's own cap limit climbs up to $25.9 million, with an extension probably going to come soon. Even Montgomery's number goes up to $9.3 million next year, so Hall would be the third back on starter money, and taking on Hall means adding a big salary to the same year all those bills arrive. And the Jets don't sound like sellers anyways. Despite interest and calls, they've told teams that they don't intend to trade him, according to Adam Schefter. And if this video is helping you get to the NFL trade deadline this afternoon, make sure you hit that like button and let's try to make this video the most liked video of the month. Whatever back ends up coming to Houston, Houston would be paying in cap space and picks. And that's where this story runs all the way back to Jadavion Clowney. And Jadavion Clowney didn't come back to Houston for a payday. He signed a one-year deal back in August and said that he could have made more money somewhere else. He came back to the team that drafted him number one overall in 2014 to chase the Super Bowl. In his first run in Houston, he had 29 sacks in 62 games and made three Pro Bowls before he was traded to Seattle. This season, he has 3.5 sacks. That ranks him third among Houston edge rushers. Will Anderson Jr. has 9.5 by himself. So the pass rush doesn't run through Jadavion Clowney. And this past Sunday, Will Anderson Jr. and Sheldon Rankins had two sacks of their own. So Clowney wasn't doing it alone. And he's a free agent after this season. So a 3-5 team could cash him out now instead of watching him walk away in March. His cap hit is $5.26 million, which would cover more than half of Pollard's $9.25. Houston is also down a high pick next year, after sending a 2027 second rounder to Arizona in the Marvin Harrison Jr. trade. That deal wasn't just about the 2026 season. According to Casario, this front office is already spending with next year in mind. And teams have already noticed Clowney too. He's generated interest ahead of the NFL trade deadline, per Adam Schefter. The case against it played out this Sunday. Take Clowney's two sacks out of that game and it's six. Not a share of the franchise record. Houston isn't actively shopping him, according to Aaron Wilson, and Clowney isn't asking for a trade either. A guy who took less money to come back home Isn't the kind of guy you ship out after three months for a mid-round pick? The last words so far came from Monday, when Ryan said he and Nick will assess everything and see what happens. My call? Keep Clowney. He was a big reason why this team had eight sacks on Sunday, and a team that's one out of three out of his last four games should not be looking to trade away pass rushers. Tony Pollard is the one worth making a call right now. $9.25 million this year, give away a fourth-round pick, and a third-rounder is way too much. And pass on Brees Hall. He's only averaging 3.4 yards a carry this season, and he's owed over $14 million next season. And if Tennessee doesn't budge, don't try to make a huge splash. David Montgomery is coming back soon, and with the pass already being hot, it's not a bad thing to sit back and wait. That's the board this morning. Buy Pollard at the right price, keep Clowney, and leave Hall in New York. So which would you rather see the Houston Texans trade for today? Brees Hall? Tony Pollard? Let me know in the comments below. And don't forget, the Houston Texans have a big make-or-break game this Sunday. Against the Cleveland Browns.