Two very different decisions -- one on the field and another off it -- had me asking the same question by Sunday afternoon on Week 5: What are they thinking?
There were the Commanders, who bizarrely decided to run the clock late in overtime against the Giants in field goal range and saw the game end without ever getting a chance to attempt the game-winning kick. And there were the Texans, who won their first game of the season and celebrated by making a surprisingly aggressive move on offense, trading second- and sixth-round picks to the Cardinals for a seventh-rounder and wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., who has underwhelmed during his pro career so far.
Subscribe: 'The Bill Barnwell Show'
I love trying to explain the inexplicable, so let's give it a shot. Why did a 1-4 Texans team -- whose playoff chances sit at 23.2% after Sunday's victory, per ESPN's Football Power Index -- trade a significant future pick to acquire a player at a position where it already has Nico Collins? And what on earth were the Commanders attempting to do at the end of that game?
I'll try to answer both those questions today, starting with the decision to try to kick-start a frustrating season by trading for one of the league's most frustrating players.
Jump to: The 1-4 Texans traded for Harrison? The Commanders let the clock expire?
The Texans' trade for Marvin Harrison Jr.
Of course, the simple explanation for why the Texans traded for Harrison starts with one simple argument. We're about two and a half years removed from Harrison entering the 2024 NFL draft as arguably the most exciting and polished wide receiver prospect of his generation. Even amid a legendary run of Ohio State wide receivers that includes the likes of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Emeka Egbuka and others, Harrison was seen alongside Jeremiah Smith as the two best pro prospects of the bunch.
Our various draft analysts saw Harrison as no worse than the third-best player overall in the class of 2024. There just aren't many players with Harrison's sort of scouting reports and college pedigree to ever enter the league. They don't come available via trade very often, and it's even rarer to get a shot at acquiring them just after they turn 24 years old.
The Texans have been through this under general manager Nick Caserio and don't regret their decision in the past. After drafting C.J. Stroud with the second pick of the 2023 draft, the Texans surprised everyone by trading two first-round picks and a second-rounder to the Cardinals to move up for edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. with the third overall selection. It was a move that seemed overly aggressive for a team that projected to be among the worst in football the following year, but it turned out to be a masterstroke.