It wouldn’t be fair to claim that the loss of one player is the root cause of matching 0-3 starts for two teams that made the Divisional Playoffs a season ago. Lapses defensively and stiff competition have contributed to the Houston Texans and Minnesota Vikings winless beginnings as well, but there’s no doubt that both clubs’ decision to trade in-their-prime, superstar wide receivers last offseason has played a role.
The Texans and Vikings both made March splashes when they dealt DeAndre Hopkins and Stefon Diggs, respectively. The Texans’ deal with the Arizona Cardinals brought back running back David Johnson along with a second-round pick, while the Vikings traded Diggs to the Buffalo Bills for a series of draft choices, including the 22nd overall selection.
In both cases, the teams’ decision-makers chose the path of least resistance by shipping off a disgruntled star for value, while doubling down on their respective systems. Offensive continuity was supposed to carry both clubs — a point that only get reiterated during a no-practice-allowed offseason — along with a continued emphasis on the running game. Johnson for the Texans and the recently-extended Dalvin Cook for the Vikings were going to be the X-factors.
It’s admittedly low-hanging fruit to declare the trades losses for the teams and wins for the receivers that got moved. Diggs is 3-0 with the Bills and fourth in the league in receiving yards. Hopkins is 2-1 with the Cardinals and leads all receivers in yardage. Meanwhile, their old franchises will be battling Sunday for their first win of the season.
“I’ve never been 0-3, I don’t think,” said quarterback Kirk Cousins, “but I’ve been on teams where you’re fighting for a playoff opportunity and I’ve been on teams where you’re finishing 3-13 or 4-12, and in both situations you play with desperation because it’s your job, it’s your livelihood, and it’s ultimately what you put on tape as a reflection of how you are at your job. I think everybody feels that desperation.”
Cousins’ age gives the Vikings’ slow start a more negative hue. By extending the 32-year-old Cousins through 2022, the Vikings were banking on his improvement to carry them through a rough patch as their revamped defense learned the ropes. That hasn’t been the case as Cousins struggled in Weeks 1 and 2 before taking a positive step in Week 3 as the Vikings scored 30 points but fell by a point.
The Vikings were convinced continuity would be their friend, but they still introduced some complicating variables by trading Diggs, changing playcallers from Kevin Stefanski to Gary Kubiak and tweaking the offensive line.
“I think when you look at Week 2, Week 2 was a poor performance,” Cousins said. “There’s not a whole lot you can say to sugarcoat it or make it look like ‘if this happens, then we play better.’ I think ultimately, that was not who we want to be. … I think where we get frustrated and disappointed is when you know you could have done more, you know that you left plays out there and there were others that gifted the other team an opportunity to beat you. Those are the things that we want to improve upon, need to improve upon. Certainly, there is continuity, there is change. There’s a little bit of both this year. We’ll keep tightening the screws down as we go here.”
Deshaun Watson, the Texans’ franchise signal caller, is only 25 and wildly popular. While his youth gives him a longer leash, it doesn’t make the team’s winless start any easier to swallow for Houston fans. They also lost a tight game in Week 3 after double-digit losses in Weeks 1-2 to a pair of powerhouses in Baltimore and Kansas City. The centerpiece of the Hopkins trade, Johnson, is averaging just 3.8 yards per carry and getting only 14 touches per game. And sans Hopkins, the Texans have struggled to get the deep passing game going with just 4 of 12 downfield passes completed, per Pro Football Focus. They added Randall Cobb and Brandin Cooks in the offseason, however, and have constructed a quicker-hitting offense built around speed.
“Well, they have a lot of good skill position [players],” said co-defensive coordinator Adam Zimmer. “They are extremely fast. All three receivers are fast, David Johnson out of the backfield does a nice job catching the ball, so they’ve put an emphasis on speed. Deshaun Watson can make any throw, he moves around in the pocket and can hit anybody on the run. … They are a very explosive offense and probably the fastest offense, as far as receivers, that we’ve seen this year.”
The Texans didn’t have a first-round pick in the draft, so they used free agency to rebuild their receiving corps. The Vikings used the pick they acquired in the Diggs trade to draft Justin Jefferson, whose breakout game in Week 3 — seven receptions, 175 yards — offered the first counterpunch to the shouldn’t-have-traded Diggs crowd.
“Kirk made some great throws, [Jefferson] made some great catches,” said offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak. “But what I was talking about was his ability to lock in on a game plan from a positional standpoint, how we tried to settle him down on exactly what we’re asking him to do, moving around and doing those types of things. I just think his response has led to some quick production. Hopefully there’ll be more.”
The more Jefferson gets involved, the easier it will be for the Vikings to tip the scales in their favor that they made the correct move in trading their blue-chip talent. Sunday’s game will be an early indicator on which offense is coping best without its primary piece from 2019.
