Come on man. Thats not cool. The Texans are a bunch of nice guys who practice hard and are good team mates.
McNair: You suck! Jerry Jones: No you suck! McNair and Jones: We both suck but cares we are stinking rich!
Since we're all reacting to the Broncos and former Texans winning the super bowl, why don't we do everything like the Broncos. Can we hire David Carr as a GM?
It doesn't hurt that the Broncos have Peyton Manning and a loaded roster on both sides of the ball. Maybe it's Elway we should be lookin at. He made the right decisions unlike Smitty and McNair apparently as of last night confirmed
The team knew they needed speed in the 2015 NFL draft but could not land the wide receiver they wanted with good value on where they graded the receiver. The Texans missed more than once in the 2015 NFL draft while trying to land a speedy wide receiver. They had a deal fall through after Phillip Dorsett was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts while the Texans had laid the framework to trade back into the first to select him. Tyler Lockett, according to sources, was convinced he was going to be with the Texans pick in the third round. The Texans made the trade up to #70 to select Lockett, but he was selected with the pick before by the Seahawks. After that, the Texans were a day late and a dollar short, they targeted Jamison Crowder (Redskins) and Stefon Diggs (Vikings) but could not land them. As short-sighted the Texans seem at times, there is real grasp on what the Texans need to do to get better. It starts with the quarterback position and there has been ongoing discussions on how to remedy that issue but time will tell. http://www.scout.com/nfl/texans/story/1641218-the-2016-offseason-overview-for-the-texans#
So they're not clueless... just incompetent at executing their desired moves. Not sure that's a better prognosis... a savvy GM is more than simply talent evaluation.
That's a bit harsh. I'd say that they were unlucky in getting whom they wanted. At least they appear to have vastly improved their talent evaluation process (although the jury is still out on Clowney). Again (for the 1000th time) the GM here (Smith) is not the football architect of the team - that is (and has been) the province of the coaching and scouting staffs ever since Charley Casserly was let go. To continue to lay all blame at the feet of Rick Smith is to completely miss the point. Smith handles the business details of the football operation. Even if he's shown the door today, they won't be in the market for a Bill Polian or John Elway type of GM. With BoB in charge, it stands to reason that the Texans' football operation come to resemble that of his mentor Bill Belichick and the NE Patriots. At some point, we have to give the process enough time to yield dividends here. From what I've seen and heard from BoB, I'm confident that this franchise is on the right path. O'Brien was a guest on ESPN's Mike & Mike Show yesterday for 3 hours and provided some very interesting commentary. Here's a like to the podcasts if you're interested: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=2445552
I never felt Rick Smith was directly involved in the talent evaluation process. The coaching/scouting staff is... and once they identify their targets, its up to "somebody" to attempt to maximize the conditions to make that happen. Now, if that isn't Rick Smith, who is it? This is now two years in a row that the Texans have been "surprised" they didn't get their intended targets, and missed it by just one pick (if you believe the rumor that Garropolo would have been 3.1 in 2014). Even Belicheck had a guy who could make trades/deals... basically a people person that coordinates/communicates and is a good negotiator.
You make a good point. I suspect that this happens because everyone is trying to out-wit each other in rounds three and on down but it could be simply a case of them not getting the breaks. Again, I'm feeling more confident in this organization's operations than I have for a long time because I can see what they are trying to accomplish. As such, I'm willing to give them a chance - especially after seeing what BoB and Smith have been able to accomplish over the last two years.
Smith may or may not be the biggest problem with Texans right now or even in the FO - but he is part of it. We cannot be sure who wanted to draft who but the bottom line is that Smith is not as bad as the detractors would have us believe.