DeAndre Hopkins Appears to Take Subtle Shot at Bill O'Brien After He Was Traded to Cardinals

Even 24 hours after it happened, the Texans trading DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for David Johnson, a second-round pick, and a fourth-round pick still doesn't make any sense from Houston's perspective. Hopkins, now freed from the constraints of Texas head coach/GM/overlord Bill O'Brien, let his Twitter followers know exactly what he thought of his old head coach.

Houston mayor Sylvester Turner thanked Hopkins for his play on the field and community outreach off of it. Hopkins reciprocated the kind works and thanked Turner "showing him what a real leader looks like."

Yikes! Hopkins must not have gotten the memo about not burning bridges.

Hopkins was a First Team All-Pro performer the last three seasons, recording at least 96 catches, 1,105 yards, and seven touchdowns per campaign. Houston has made the playoffs each of the last two seasons.

O'Brien's trade looked awful when it first went down, but the fact that the Minnesota Vikings were able to pick up four picks, included a first-round selection, for an inferior wide receiver in Stefon Diggs confirmed that Cardinals GM Steve Keim totally fleeced O'Brien. Both as a coach and GM, O'Brien is struggling at the moment.

O'Brien isn't going to be fired anytime soon, as doing so would put the Texans out of a head coach and a GM. He'll keep winning 10 games a year because of a weak division and the fact he completely lucked into Deshaun Watson, but it appears that his style of leadership is wearing thin.

As soon as Hopkins was able to take a shot at him, he did.