:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46032974/usa-today-8300785.0.jpg)
In 2013, Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak answered Andre Johnson's regular request to draft another wide receiver skilled in the art of catching the football. We ended up with DeAndre Hopkins, a player plenty of us clamored for, thanks to his oversized hands and work ethic. Good thing, too, since, two years in, we're without Johnson, and are now turning to Nuk to lead our receiving corps to the Promised Land.
Hopkins has been very good since coming to Houston, and it hasn't gone unnoticed by the national media. In fact, in ESPN's recent re-do of the 2013 NFL Draft, they drafted DeAndre Hopkins considerably higher than where the Texans got him.
Today on NFL LIVE, we re-drafted the 2013 class. @NYJets Sheldon Richardson would be No. 1 overall -> pic.twitter.com/S49OmjIph5
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) March 31, 2015
In 2013, our beloved team was coming off a 12-4 season and a playoff berth where we won a game against the Bengals at home and lost to the Patriots away (like the rest of y'all, I've chosen to bury that memory, so we'll stop there).
Our 2012 WR corps included such leading lights as DeVier Posey and Keshawn Martin, both of whom remain with the team, as well as Kevin Walter, apparently all but retired with back problems, Andre Johnson, now with the Colts, and Lestar Jean, who is out of the league.
Kubiak, Smith, and company knew we needed an upgrade at the position group, and drafted Nuk with the 27th pick, and we've reaped the benefits ever since. In ESPN'S re-draft, the Titans got Nuk instead of Chance Warmack (he of the "just another guy" comments about J.J. Watt).
What say you, Texans fans? What would our WR room look like without Nuk (and 'Dre, and Lestar) but with K-Mart and Posey? Is there any other player you'd have selected in the re-draft, knowing what we know now?