The (apparent) april 1st joke post about trading Andre to Cleveland got me thinking.

In a world unaffected by emotion wouldn't this be such a bad idea? I mean Andre is getting up there in age(30+), he has been bugged with injuries last 2 years, his production has been coming down since 2008, we have a huge cap hit coming up from Andre in the next few years. If he keeps getting injured pretty soon we are looking at a cut/trade (at reduced value) anyways.

I know that we all love this guy, but where would love/loyalty end and prudent football decisions begin? The patriots model of trading high performers before their contracts corner the team and force them to let them go for free is the best way forward for a sustainable team (see what happened with Mario and compare that to Demaco Ryans situation to see the value we get for trading players when they are still in their prime and on contract).

If we can get a couple of first rounders (or a first rounder+2 second/third rounders) wouldn’t it make sense to move up and grab Blackmon/Floyd and another great WR2/OLB/DE? If we can get 2 great young WRs (Floyd, Blackmon) who are almost 7 years younger at the same cost wouldn't that make us almost unstoppable as a team? Imagine a team with Arian/Tate at RB, OD/Casey at TE and Floyd/Blackmon at WR and Schaub/TJ at QB. With Watt/Antonio at DE, Reed/Barwin at OLB, Cushing at ILB and JJo/Quin/Manning in the secondary we will have the talent to make deep playoff runs for many years.

Don’t flame me(I am new to the Houston area, and to the US in general, so I don’t have that many strings attached to individual players, but I do love my TEAM, the Texans). Just post your thoughts though.