J.J. Watt on DeAndre Hopkins trade: Above my pay grade, but it catches your eye

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It’s been almost two months since the Texans traded wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals, which means there’s been a good amount of time for other players to let their feelings about the deal sink in.

For Texans defensive end J.J. Watt, that process began with surprise but has morphed into focusing on his job while trusting that head coach/General Manager Bill O’Brien is working with the best interests of the team in mind.

“Anytime you have a guy like Hop, who in my opinion, has the best hands in the game and is obviously one of the top receivers of the game, it certainly catches your eye, that’s for sure,” Watt said, via Jimmy Traina of SI.com. “It’s always tough to lose a guy like that, no matter what the situation is. It’s above my pay grade and it’s something that obviously the team and the organization feels is in the best interest of the team. So as a player on the team, I do my job and I go to work and I play the games, and the G.M. and the owners, they do their job and they try and do what they feel is best for the team. And so, all I can do is show up and go to work and hope that all the guys that we have are great contributors to our team.”

People in Houston figure to spend a good bit of time tracking Hopkins’ play in Arizona alongside the production of the Texans Offense over the course of the coming season. The results will have a lot to do with how much faith people have in O’Brien’s future moves to shape the Texans roster.