HARD TO BELIEVE IN
Between Culley debacle and Caserio talking in circles, team doing little to inspire fan base
It is difficult to believe in the Texans. And the Texans don’t make buying in any easier.
It is hard to have faith in the Texans. Firing David Culley as a rebuilding team’s head coach, after less than a full year on the job, doesn’t help spread the local faith.
It is challenging to understand how all of this — internal drama, firings, national media leaks, constant roster turnover, a Year 2 system reboot immediately after Year 1 — will eventually lead Houston’s NFL team to its first Super Bowl trophy.
Do you know what the Texans’ plan is?
Does your smartest football friend understand what the Texans’ plan is?
I still don’t. And I spend a lot of my time on this planet writing about, discussing, analyzing and sometimes critiquing an organization that just finished its 20th year of existence yet still hasn’t won an AFC divisional-round playoff game.
It’s hard to believe in Houston’s plan when no one, outside of
Nick Caserio and Jack Easterby, knows what the real plan is.
It’s also difficult to buy in to what the Texans are trying to sell when they constantly make us question our faith and consistently struggle to deliver their own message.
Caserio spoke for almost 30 minutes on Friday, the day after Culley was canned and re-entered the job market with $17 million already promised for the next three years.
The Texans’ rookie GM mentioned Google, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and a “global perspective.” If you had crashed the subdued NRG Stadium party and hovered in the background midpress conference, you easily could have been convinced that Caserio was discussing inflation, the housing market, Bitcoin,
NFTs or the latest hot hedge fund.
Jeff Luhnow made an art out of injecting baseball with science and math while rebuilding the Astros. Daryl Morey often treated the Rockets like chess (or checkers) pieces while reconfiguring Houston’s NBA team.
Applying contemporary business principles to the modern athletics world has been in fashion for a while now, so I technically don’t have a problem with Caserio sounding like a day trader while overseeing a 4-13 roster that produced a 4-13 head coach.
But Caserio spent the first day after the Texans’ Culley era talking in circles while only creating more confusion about what’s to come in 2022.
He could have backed Lovie Smith as defensive coordinator. But that did not happen.
“We’re going to have to take that one day at a time and see where we end up on a coaching front,” Caserio said.
He could have stated that Davis Mills, the first draft pick of the Caserio era, will be the team’s starting quarterback entering training camp. Or replied with the general idea that, if all goes well this offseason, Mills will be allowed to compete for the primary gig. Caserio did neither.
“When you look at (Mills) relative to some of the other rookie quarterbacks that played last season, you can make an argument that he was just as good or better than any one of them,” he said. “What does that mean for next year? That doesn’t really mean anything. We felt Davis was a good player when we drafted him, and some of the things that you saw from him this season were confirmation of that. He’s got a long way to go as well, and he’d be the first to tell you that.”
Most importantly, Caserio was given another chance to say something definitive about Deshaun Watson. The GM passed again. To this day, Caserio still hasn’t stated that Watson definitely will be traded and won’t play for the Texans again.
“There is going to be a number of things that we talk about during the offseason,” Caserio said. “That particular situation, I don’t think there’s any more clarity today than there was here previously, but we’re going to work through it. Ultimately, we’re going to do what we feel is best for the organization.”
What about the upcoming No. 3 overall pick in the NFL draft, which could become the first major building block for the rebuilt Texans?
Caserio wasn’t asked about that selection, but he created ambiguity anyway.
“We have the third overall pick or whatever that is,” he said. “Whether or not we stay at three, that’s a whole separate discussion.”
The only thing that is perfectly clear regarding the Texans right now is that CEO Cal McNair has 100 percent bought into GM Caserio, and GM Caserio takes pride in also being Coach Caserio.
The only problem with that? McNair also bought in hard to GM/HC/offensive playcaller Bill O’Brien, gave O’Brien unprecedented power on Kirby Drive, and then pulled the plug after just four games during a 2020 season heavily impacted by the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.
O’Brien was allowed to coach, build and shape the Texans in his image. He went 2-4 in the playoffs and the bad, painful losses stand out more than his 52-48 overall record and four division titles.
Caserio is obviously running NRG his way. But the Texans started 4-13 in Year 1, and the inexperienced head coach that Caserio initially picked was coldly fired.
Did Caserio get the Culley hire right? Wrong?
The Texans’ GM deflected, again.
“It’s not for me to judge,” Caserio said. “I would say we hired David because we believed in him, I believed in him. When you look at some of the things we were able to put in place in the building and where the program is right now, I’d say he deserves a lot of credit for that.
“Again, I think it’s important to take a global view each year. Unfortunately, this is a year-toyear, bottom-line business, so this is like when people have a oneyear, three-year, five-year plan, or even when somebody takes over a new job.”
Thirty-one other NFL teams have their own master plan. Are the Caserio-guided Texans eventually going to outsmart everyone else in the league and give Houston what it hasn’t received in 20 seasons of Texans football?
New England has been run for more than two decades by Bill Belichick.
Andy Reid became even smarter when Kansas City traded up for Patrick Mahomes.
Aaron Rodgers has had serious drama in Green Bay. But the Packers are still the Packers, and they have this weekend off as they wait for the next round of the playoffs to start.
None of the above started their current runs like the Texans have under Caserio.
“That’s who we’re chasing,” Caserio said. “Those are some of the better organizations in sports, and we’re trying to put ourselves on a similar level. Are we there yet? Not even close. Do we have a lot of work to get to that point? Absolutely.”
Whatever Caserio’s master plan is, it better work. He’s already in the hole, and it’s harder than ever to believe in the Texans.