The Houston Texans released Brian Hoyer last weekend. It wasn’t a surprising move. What is surprising is what Texans general manager Rick Smith said about the team’s former quarterback, per Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle.
“I think I probably could have gotten a pick, honestly,” Texans general manager Rick Smith said. “In fairness to him, we just thought, and this was an organizational decision, we have multiple conversations about it. While there might have been some value there for us organizationally, it just felt like it was the right time to do it. Not just for him, but for us as well. It was the right time for us organizationally and so we made the move.”
So, Houston might have been able to get some sort of compensation for Hoyer, but chose that releasing him and getting nothing for him was best for the organization? It’s hard to make much sense out of that one.
The Texans made the best move for Hoyer by releasing him. That gives him a chance to go to whatever team he wants, as opposed to the team that Houston decides can offer the most.
There’s nothing wrong with helping Hoyer out. He’s by all accounts a nice guy, and letting him pick his new team is a stand up move.
But Smith, or anyone with the Texans, could have very easily gone up to Hoyer and said something akin to this. “Brian, we’re going to be straight with you, you’re not in our plans moving forward. We’d like to get something for you, but we also want to end up in a place where you want to be. So, are there any places you’d like to go?”
From there, Houston could have tried to work a trade out with any team on Hoyer’s list. If they couldn’t make it work, then the decision to either release him or send him to a team not on his list could have been discussed.
If Brian Hoyer had any trade value, even if it was just as a late seventh-round pick, then Rick Smith didn’t do his job in not even pursuing it as a possibility. So, while the decision to release Hoyer was not surprising and not even close to the biggest move of the offseason, it is certainly one of the more baffling ones.