QUICK FIX AT HAND?
WHEN TEXANS ARE CONCERNED, IT MAY BE EASIER SAID THAN DONE
Can the Texans be fixed? Do they have even a glimmer of near-term championship potential or will they forever be a lost cause, a fractured tibial plateau, a ripped pectoral muscle or a torn ACL waiting to happen? I’ve seen too many things go so terribly wrong with our NFL franchise — after watching too many things go so terribly wrong with our previous one — that I’m pre-programmed to expect the worst. Example: My reaction to the horrifying news that Deshaun Watson had blown out his knee just as he was beginning to fashion a résumé that would inevitably lead him to Canton was, “Well, of course he did.” As a result, I sought outside counsel, and not from fellow jaded, care-worn sportswriters but from true Deep Steel Blue fans, everymen who care deeply about the Texans’ fortunes but, as students of the game and not just rah-rah types, haven’t drunk the Kool-aid.
A dinner was arranged. A long-ago bet needed to be paid off anyway. I’d won it by predicting last March that Tom Savage would be the Texans’ opening-day starter at quarterback. My buddies — I’ll call them Charlie, who’s in public relations, and Jim, who works for a prominent winery — went with Brock Osweiler (he’d yet to be traded) and an “unnamed rookie,” respectively. Obviously, Jim’s “unnamed rookie” should have been the guy, but, no, the fix wasn’t in with Bill O’Brien. I’d simply thought I knew O’Brien well enough to assume he’d opt for the veteran, all things being remotely equal. And, if you re-examine their respective preseason performances, you’ll see they were.
Emmaline’s pork chops and veal Milanese ordered, wine glasses filled and fond reminisces of the Astros’ glorious autumn adventure dispensed with, we set out to explore where the 4-12 Texans go, if anywhere, from six consecutive losses and a last-place-inthe-AFC-South finish. Spoiler alert: Their optimism astonished and, in the end, infected me.
“Twelve-and-four next season and the Super Bowl,” Charlie said.
Oh dear, that Kool-Aid pitcher is looking a little empty.
No lack of missteps
But, first, what I would hear over the next couple of hours and, yes, a couple more glasses of wine, was considerable frustration over myriad bad personnel decisions. Both gents, as did I, laid the blame for same at the feet of the nowin-limbo general manager Rick Smith with Jim specifically lamenting how much quality talent has been lost in free agency, from Glover Quin (2013) on through A.J. Bouye (2017) with Connor Barwin (2013), Brooks Reed (2014), Brandon Brooks (2015) and Ben Jones (2016) in between. Every one of them except the
Lions’ Quin is preparing for a playoff game as we speak.
“can’t we keep our own players?” he said. “What’s up with that? That’s been a problem.”
Added Charlie: “I heard they didn’t even talk to Quin (about re-signing) and he’s been one of the best free safeties in the league since he left Houston.”
Quin, who has made 80 consecutive starts for the Lions with 16 interceptions, was deemed expendable, as if
anybody needs reminding, because owner Bob McNair and his general manager thought Ed Reed would be a major upgrade. They thought wrong. Reed, his abilities faded and his locker-room presence poisonous, helped wreck the 2013 Texans despite playing only five games before being waived. Or, better, summarily dismissed.
However, my dinner companions possessed unconditional faith in Watson’s magical powers, his surgically-repaired ACL notwithstanding, and they were quick to point out how the current general malaise afflicting the entire AFC, the Patriots included, will open doors wide for the Texans if they can manage a couple of quick fixes.
Jim said Tom Brady’s average stats of late — six TD passes, five picks over the past five games plus a sub.500 completion-percentage Sunday against the Jets — offers clear evidence that time catches up with everybody, even a GOAT quarterback with five going on six Super Bowl rings who became the first 40-year-old to lead in the NFL in passing yards in 2017.
“Without Brady being Brady,” he said, “the Patriots are nothing special, just another team.”
Easier said than done?
The thing is, nobody in the current AFC playoff bracket is scary enough to think the Texans are already doomed for 2018. Quite the contrary. With their full complement of stars — Watson, J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus hadn’t yet gone down — they beat the Titans 57-14. They’d won six in a row against the Jaguars before this season. The Steelers have an aging, possibly even retiring quarterback of their own in Ben Roethlisberger. Andy Reid’s Chiefs with Alex Smith have yet to prove they can stay on course long enough to accomplish great things. The Bills? Please.
Those aforementioned quick fixes, however, are problematical. The offensive line, we all agreed, is an unmitigated disaster because of a misspent draft choice (Xavier Su’a-Filo) plus uninspiring to flat-out awful previous free-agent acquisitions ( Jeff Allen, Chris Clark, Breno Giacomini, the long-gone Tony Bergstrom) and no significant help appears to be forthcoming through 2018 free agency, given the lackluster crop. But Jim insisted he has studied the college prospects and sees hope there because of the quality depth at the position. That matters with the Texans not drafting in the first round, having sent their pick to Cleveland in order to have a shot at Watson.
“They’ve got to trade up to get a tackle who can start immediately,” he said.
Under different circumstances, perhaps Smith would have taken more of a beating at the table, but we were reluctant to go there with his wife, Tiffany, undergoing treatment for breast cancer, prompting the leave of absence he announced this week. And, as is only fair, Smith got props for grasping Watson’s potential, then taking the steps to ensure he became a Texan.
“Remember,” Charlie said, “Deshaun was Rick’s guy from the start.”
As for the expensive, ill-fated decision to dump Osweiler on O’Brien last year, Jim argued: “They needed to make a move and there was no other move to make. They had to sign somebody.”
On the Texans’ sticking with O’Brien, the verdict was also unanimous. While we groused about his clock management skills and illtimed play-calling gaffes, we agreed that keeping him, to quote Charlie, “was the right call. He’s been talked about as being a quarterback whisperer forever and it showed up this year, when he finally got the right quarterback. He deserves a chance to have Watson for a full season.”
With apologies to Charlie, I can’t see the Texans going 12-4 and galloping toward the Super Bowl a year from now, as much as I, too, am enamored with Watson’s skill set. But I do agree with Charlie and Jim that sufficient pieces are place, internally and externally, to make recovering from the 2017 debacle a relatively painless process.