Or, if the Colts had any inkling Manning wasn't done, traded the pick for a bounty to surround him for the final 4, 5 years of his career. I remember arguing this at the time (and years later): sure, dump on the Texans - but the team that had the most intimate knowledge of Manning's injury and recovery - the best player in its franchise history (and one of the greatest players of all-time) who, prior to the injury, had shown zero signs of slowing down - decided to move on from him. Sure, Luck softened the blow and probably made it an easier decision - but as Nimo said, Manning has actually been better (prior to this year). In hindsight, the Texans should have pulled the trigger. But that's an awfully large serving of hindsight.
The Texans didn't just not go after Manning. They re-upped Matt Schaub. You know who had the most medial history and knowledge on Matt Schaub? The Texans. You know who was the best QB in Texans history (sadly)? Matt Schaub. And the Texans gave him a juicy contract and he became worthless in less than a year. You can take any decision in a vacuum and excuse the wrong decision. But it's not like the Texans have a great history of personnel decision making even if you ignore Manning.
There are plenty of salty Colts fans who have religiously continued to follow Peyton's career after he left... they all recognize he is "done", but also still wish he would have finished as a Colt. Don't get me wrong, they're plenty happy with Luck... they're just conflicted as to whether or not they'd be "happier" with Peyton, especially since its not a given that Peyton would have had less success with the Colts over the last 4 years. And while Luck is the "man" for the foreseeable future... 4 years is a LONG time in the NFL... a time in which Luck has already taken a severe pounding to his body, with no guarantees that he's going to be the same... or better... for years to come. To put it in perspective... since Peyton left the Colts, there have been plenty of QB's who were anointed as the "franchise" QB, but have since lost their jobs, or are huge question marks going forward (Kapernick, RG3, Tannehill, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, Nick Foles, Christian Ponder, Jay Cutler, Josh Freeman, E.J. Manuel, Geno Smith, MATT SCHAUB, Browns QB du jour). That's nearly half the league that would have been better off having Manning at some point over the last 4 years... things change that fast.
You're conflating two entirely separate events. The Schaub extension happened after the first week of the 2012 regular season, when he had proven he was healthy - many, many months after they (reportedly) passed on Manning. The Schaub extension was, in hindsight, a mistake. But it actually looked borderline genius through the first 12 weeks of that season - before the implosion. But I'll never knock the Texans for - at the time - choosing Schaub over Manning. Far too many fans view that through the prism of late 2012/2013 and it's unfairly removing substantial context from the decision.
The extension thing was weird. Everyone expected it to not get done until after the season. All of a sudden Rick and McNair call a press conference extending Schaub. Rick says he wasn't the one who says he wouldnt do an in-season extension. Even Schaub was surprised. Hmm, that doesn't look like a Kubiak call to me
Yeah; I've heard inside rumblings that Kubiak wasn't Schaub's biggest fan. I understand the staff (I was never able to pinpoint how far that extended - front office?) was divided on him and some of the limitations fans griped about (audibles; red zone) were a component of Kubiak "hiding" Schaub's deficiencies. If a power play broke out between Smith and Kubiak (which seems highly likely, considering how things turned out)... man, did McNair bungle it by jettisoning the wrong guy.
Yeah that's my impression, he chose Rick over Kubiak. But I also heard Kubiak didn't want Peyton. Maybe he wanted to play out the season then figure out the QB situation after
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What will it take for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Texans?src=hash">#Texans</a> to make next year's Super Bowl? "Reliable quarterback play," Bob McNair says. Says no need for a superstar.</p>— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) <a href="https://twitter.com/taniaganguli/status/697823327398658048">February 11, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Enjoy mediocrity boys!
Like to know who the super-star QB's are that are readily available. They do need to make a valid attempt to upgrade the position... but even then, nobody should expect a superstar in return.
He built a Championship team. McNair and Rick Smith haven't build ****. The Texans are not on the same track as the Broncos.
well hoyer is out of the equation. bob said reliable. those ex patriots on kirby can't think hoyer is reliable after the sewage he put on display.
Yup, Denver is built very similar to the way the Texans are built, they are just a bit better all around. The Texans defense has potential to be every bit as good as the Denver defense and if the Texans address the QB position with even a mediocre QB as opposed to the complete garbage that they had there last season then they'd be well positioned to make a deep playoff run. A new RB wouldn't hurt either.
I never said they were. I'm merely pointing out that Elway is almost certainly saying the same thing about his QB situation after enduring a season that was, at least statistically, worse than the Texans (QB-wise). The Texans threw more TDs (29 to 19), fewer INTs (12 to 23) and their passer rating was higher (85.3 to 76.3). So what McNair said is 100% accurate. And, while not the most rousing sentiment from a fan perspective, is at least dipped in a healthy dose of reality. Aaron Rodgers ain't walking through that door...
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>.@<a href="https://twitter.com/sonofbum">sonofbum</a> wearing SB50 title hat @<a href="https://twitter.com/UHouston">UHouston</a>: "It feels great. It's beyond belief. We're the best team in the world" <a href="https://t.co/jPuqjfzK3c" title="http://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/698633254392299520/photo/1">pic.twitter.com/jPuqjfzK3c</a></p>— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/698633254392299520" data-datetime="2016-02-13T22:22:02+00:00">February 13, 2016</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
