The Houston Texans have an abundance of riches at the wide receiver position, which could lead to a trade for wide receiver John Metchie. A third-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, the Alabama product missed his rookie season while battling acute promyelocytic leukemia. The wideout returned to the field in 2023 but recorded just 16 receptions for 158 yards. Nobody can blame the wideout for poor production in his first year back from a cancer diagnosis, but Metchie probably won’t have a chance to establish himself with the Houston Texans.
Houston has two proven homegrown wideouts in Nico Collins and Tank Dell and added superstar Stefon Diggs during the offseason. With these three on the field and Dalton Schultz at tight end, Metchie won’t have a clear path to targets. With this in mind, Alex Kay of Bleacher Report believes the Texans could trade John Metchie to the New Orleans Saints for a 2025 sixth-round pick.
Texans Could Trade John Metchie to Saints
It’s easy to see why the New Orleans Saints would consider a John Metchie trade. Chris Olave is set up for a breakout and Rashid Shaheed is a reliable deep threat, but this team could use a third option. The Saints enter the 2024 season with arguably the worst offensive line in the league, and the unit could sink the entire offense. Derek Carr is one of the NFL’s worst quarterbacks against pressure, so he’ll need as many weapons as possible to compensate for the poor blocking.
Despite the seemingly endless series of contract restructures, the Saints have yet to address the loss of Michael Thomas. The wide receiver is not the player he once was, but he still recorded 39 receptions for 448 yards and a touchdown on 64 targets. John Metchie can match this output, and a trade would ensure Carr has a checkdown option when the pocket collapses. Metchie wouldn’t be anything more than the fourth option in this passing attack, but that would still be a good use of a sixth-round pick.
Would the Texans Make This Deal?
John Metchie does not have a direct path to the field, but that doesn’t mean the Texans will trade him for nothing. With C.J. Stroud leading one of the strongest rosters in football, Houston has the tools to go on a deep playoff run in 2024. However, the AFC is loaded with elite teams, and the Texans could use all the talent they can get if they want to hoist the first Lombardi in franchise history.
If the Texans were going to trade John Metchie, they probably wouldn’t have cut Noah Brown. Brown is no superstar, but the former seventh-round pick would be a reliable second or third option in most offenses. Houston thinks Metchie is better, which suggests they believe he could step in as a starting receiver if an injury struck one of Collins, Diggs, or Dell. Wide receiver is one of the most important positions in the game, and having a good fourth option is more important than a 2025 sixth-round pick for a contending team like the Texans.
