Last night, Rivers and I grabbed a beer at 360. Good times were had by all. But you probably guessed that.
As the discussion meandered along, the conversation turned to your Houston Texans, as it is wont to do. I'm not sure exactly when we started specifically talking about Amobi Okoye; I believe it was sometime before Rivers expressed sincere pity that I never owned a Super Nintendo, yet sometime after we debated the potential effect the purported regime change in Egypt has had on the current strife in Libya my chicken fingers arrived.
Back on point: If you hadn't heard, I'm not the biggest fan of Amobust Mr. Okoye. While Rivers is skeptical Amobi will ever prove himself worthy of the tenth overall pick of the 2007 NFL Draft, he believes Okoye still has the potential to be a productive part of the defensive line rotation in Wade Phillips' new 3-4. I harbor no such optimism, yet readily admit that I generally have no clue what I'm talking about and thus could very, very easily be wrong.
When a Texans fan is talking about defensive tackles and the complete absence of hope that said defensive tackle will ever prove himself to be a regularly productive member of the team, it's natural that the words "Travis" and "Johnson" will come up. As Rivers and I continued the debate, I wondered aloud whether the Texans would be able to get a better package in trade for Amobi Okoye right now than what they got for Travis Johnson from the Chargers back on August 31, 2009. In other words, would the Texans get more than a conditional sixth-round pick for Amobi Okoye if they tried to trade him?
I'm not so sure they would, though I'd guess they'd net a slightly better return. I think the best case scenario would be a fifth-round pick for Amobi Okoye. The highest return speculated (from none other than BFD) was a third or fourth-round pick, which immediately garnered a retort from me questioning his sobriety.
There's not even a scintilla of a rumor that the Texans are interested in jettisoning Okoye; it's just an interesting question to ponder. Express your opinion in the poll and Comments below.