St. Louis traded picks No. 184 and No. 198 to Houston on…
St. Louis traded picks No. 184 and No. 198 to Houston on April 27, 2013 to move up to No. 160 and select running back Zac Stacy. Stacy played 27 regular-season games with 17 starts over two Rams seasons, rushing for 1,266 yards and eight touchdowns while adding 44 catches for 293 yards and another score. His 973-yard rookie season made him the clearest realized value in the exchange before St. Louis traded him to the Jets in 2015.
Houston Texans Received
- pick 2013 sixth round pick (#184, later packaged with Houston #233 for #176- David Quessenberry )
- pick 2013 sixth round pick (#198- Chris Jones )
Los Angeles Rams Received
- pick 2013 fifth round pick (#160- Zac Stacy )
Trade Analysis
The transaction is documented consistently by Houston, the Rams and the completed draft ledger. On April 27, 2013, St. Louis sent sixth-round selections No. 184 and No. 198 to Houston for the Texans' fifth-round pick at No. 160. The Rams used No. 160 on Vanderbilt running back Zac Stacy. Houston did not simply use both incoming picks, which is why the legacy row needs a fuller downstream accounting: No. 198 became Chris Jones, while No. 184 was immediately combined with another Texans selection in a separate trade-up.
Stacy gave the Rams meaningful short-term production. NFL records show him playing 14 games with 12 starts as a rookie in 2013, rushing 250 times for 973 yards and seven touchdowns while catching 26 passes for 141 yards and another score. In 2014 he appeared in 13 games with five starts, adding 293 rushing yards and one touchdown plus 18 catches for 152 yards. Across his two St. Louis seasons, that is 27 games, 17 starts, 1,266 rushing yards, eight rushing touchdowns, 44 receptions and 293 receiving yards. The Rams later traded him to the Jets, but his New York production is not credited to this exchange.
Houston used No. 198 on Bowling Green defensive tackle Chris Jones. He did not produce a Texans regular-season return. Houston released Jones at final cuts on August 31, 2013; Tampa Bay claimed and then waived him, and New England claimed him in September. Jones went on to become a productive Patriots defender, but those later games and sacks came after Houston no longer controlled his rights. For this trade evaluation, No. 198 generated no regular-season Texans game value.
The No. 184 asset retained value through another draft-day move. Houston packaged No. 184 with its own seventh-round pick, No. 233, and sent both to Oakland for No. 176. The Texans selected San Jose State tackle David Quessenberry there. Because No. 233 was also required, Quessenberry cannot be credited wholly to the Rams trade. His Houston on-field contribution was also limited by circumstances far beyond ordinary football evaluation: after being drafted, he battled non-Hodgkin lymphoma and eventually returned to appear in two regular-season games for the Texans in 2017. His later multi-team NFL career belongs to those subsequent clubs, not Houston's return here.
The Rams therefore hold the clear hindsight edge. Houston created extra draft flexibility and eventually received two games from the player acquired through the No. 184 trade-up, but neither incoming sixth-round asset produced meaningful sustained Texans game value. St. Louis received two useful seasons from Stacy, including a 973-yard rookie rushing season. A B+ for the Rams and C for Houston reflects that difference without overstating a fifth-round running back's relatively short tenure.