“The backlash would be amazing,” a source told the Miami Herald on Thursday regarding how the Dolphins locker room would react should rumors that the team might trade star left tackle Laremy Tunsil prove true. “Guys would legit revolt.” Well, Viva la revolución, because the Dolphins have reportedly agreed to trade Tunsil and wide receiver Kenny Stills to the Texans for a whole lot of draft picks.
The original trade rumors involving Tunsil and the Texans centered around a deal that would ship the 25-year-old tackle to Houston in exchange for Jadeveon Clowney. However, the Texans sent Clowney to the Seahawks earlier today, which appeared to kill any deal for Tunsil. And yet!
NFL Network broke the news of the trade today, and its report says the Texans are giving up two first-round picks, one second-rounder, and a couple players in the deal. That’s a massive haul for the Dolphins, even more than what the Browns paid for Odell Beckham Jr. and what the Bears gave up for Khalil Mack. It’s good that Miami can claim to have won this trade, since it might be the only thing this absolutely terrible team will win all season.
Robbing an already bad roster of Tunsil and Stills arguably makes the Dolphins the worst team in the NFL. The two soon-to-be-former Dolphins must be ecstatic to have fled the sorry Dolphins for what should be a pretty good Texans team—especially Stills, who had righteously beefed with team owner Stephen Ross over Ross throwing a fundraiser for a prominent racist.
It’s unclear if Stills will find it better in Houston, though; longtime Texans owner Bob McNair had himself donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, and famously pissed off his team and damn near the entire sports world when he referred to kneeling NFL players as “inmates running the prison.” However, McNair died late last year. For Stills’s sake, hopefully the Texans ownership’s reactionary affinities died with the man.