SECOND TIME A CHARM?
Texans general manager Nick Caserio has another chance to find the right head coach
The Texans’ modus operandi, specifically the one that Bill O’Brien and Jack Easterby implemented in recent years, is not the best way to run an NFL franchise.
Theirs was not a winning process.
Nick Caserio, who was hired as general manager one year ago, was supposed to fix all of that. He hasn’t.
He has worked on some of the issues that have kept the Texans among the worst-run franchises in the NFL in recent years. But the first major decision he and Easterby made proved to be unsound.
David Culley was fired Thursday after just one year as head coach, his first as a head coach on any level.
When you make such a call with an NFL team’s most important hire, one has to wonder if you are capable of handling such responsibility.
Of course, Cal McNair is not the one. He will give Culley a $17-million to-go plate, and will again allow Caserio to decide who will be the Texans’ next coach.
Caserio said he still believes Culley was the right hire a year ago.
“I would say when you rewind and go back to a year ago … when I started and I took over,
I’d say the organization was in a pretty rough spot,” Caserio said at a news conference Friday. “I think from where we were then to where we are now, we’re in a lot better position.
“Quite frankly, I think that’s because of the leadership and the guidance and direction that David Culley provided this football team.”
Such high praise despite Caserio’s boot print still being on Culley’s behind after he kicked him out the door the day before.
I half-kid, but McNair will one day request a spreadsheet to show how much money his family has paid former Patriots executives, coaches and players. I assure you, it’s an astronomical figure.
That number will increase significantly should Caserio hire one of his former running buddies with New England, which has several current and former assistants looking to land head coaching jobs in this cycle.
A few years from now, do not be surprised if Easterby, Caserio and one of their pals from the Patriots leave Texas with three family fortunes and zero Super Bowl appearances.
I’m not accusing Easterby and Caserio of a devious plot, but the hiring of Culley was such a headscratcher. If Caserio was crazy enough to think it could work a year ago, then he should still be crazy.
There is an oft-used joke that Bill Belichick sent his henchmen to the Texans to destroy the franchise.
It’s cute, but the Texans have hardly been a threat to the Patriots, so aside from the times the teams were scheduled to play, Belichick has barely given them any thought.
A better bad theory is that someone else in the Patriots’
organization, an underling, maybe even a capo, saw the Texans as a money-making opportunity.
An owner with deep pockets who is easy to impress? And you don’t even have to win championships? Easy money.
Let’s take a road trip, boys. The Texans have already interviewed Brian Flores, the recently fired head coach of the Dolphins, who spent 15 years with the Patriots before going to Miami in 2019.
Josh McDaniels, the Patriots’ offensive coordinator, and Jerod Mayo, a former player with New England who is now its inside linebackers coach, are highly regarded head coaching candidates.
Caserio could erase the narrative and hire outside the Patriots’ bubble. He did that a year ago, when he also hired outside the logical bubble with the inexperienced Culley.
Was it a decoy?
It would be nice if Caserio bounced back from his poor decision with a great hire.
In 1978, Pete McCulley didn’t even make it through his first season with the San Francisco 49ers before being fired as head coach by then-general manager Joe Thomas.
The 49ers’ young owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. hired Bill Walsh, and the rest is history.
Clearly, Cal McNair is no Eddie DeBartolo. Former Texans do not, and likely never will, speak of McNair the way 49ers talk about DeBartolo, who is a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Football, the game, is about blocking and tackling, no doubt. But the business is about decisions.
The teams playing in the playoffs made smarter decisions than those who aren’t.
“I’d say this business is twofold; it’s results and it’s process,” Caserio said.
Caserio, a 4-13 general manager, began his process of running the Texans by making an unusual hire that didn’t work out longterm.
If he makes the right call on his second try, the Culley ride will be a footnote in the Texans’ rise to the top.
If he doesn’t, the next few years will be a waste McNair’s money, and a waste of Texans fans’ time.
What are you betting on?