Do you feel O'Brien's tenure has maximized Deshaun Watson's skill set in the way Mahomes' seemingly has been in Kansas City or Lamar Jackson in Baltimore? Do you feel like the Texans have used the rookie contract flexibility that Watson has provided to go all in and go for it now the way Seattle did when they hit the lottery with Russell Wilson? What did you think of last year's draft, or the past few drafts when the franchise seemed to sit and wait while others traded up and leap-frogged the Texans to take the player they were obviously targeting? And did you enjoy seeing extremely valuable high end future draft capital spent to attempt to correct non-performance on draft day?
I would normally agree with you, but the problem is with how he fixed all of those needs. The bill for those purchases hasn’t come due yet. This team will still have holes, and without all the draft picks that he gave up in trades, it’s going to be hard to fix them. He somewhat successfully put a band-aid on a broken leg, and I give him credit for it, but that only works for so long.
I don't think letting people leapfrog us in the draft is BOB's fault. I think the person responsible for that got fired last year. I also don't think BOB has maximized Watson's potential. to me that is the biggest sticking point in all of this. The offense never has rhythm during the scripted plays portion of the game and then picks up steam when Watson kind of has to improvise. That coupled with Mahomes and Lamar Jackson doing their thing so well makes the reins on Watson so frustrating. I actually don't mind BOB being the GM for another year and even the head coach bc his biggest weakness could be covered with a good offensive coordinator which he will never bring in so I think we are going to still facing the same issues. What surprises me the most is that he was actually pretty creative with Watson when he first started playing not sure if the injury caused them to get scared
Yeah, I've thought of that rookie season prior to injury often and scratched my head. That said, there's also a lot of history of these extremely gifted mobile QB's coming out of college and turning heads year 1 before slowly regressing from the style of play they displayed that first year (Robert Griffin III, Vince Young come to mind). What I remember most about that rookie season was how often opposing defenses seemed to freeze after the snap, not knowing what the Houston offense was going to do. We did seem to have more motion, end arounds, etc that season.
I think Deshaun is progressing at his own pace. Last year he sucked in the playoffs, this year he won his first playoff game, Lamar Jackson hasn't done that yet. He has a lot that he needs to fix individually before coaching but yeah I think Deshaun's skill set has been fully utilized. Duke Johnson's has not, but you didn't ask that. The Texans have cap space to make things happen in free agency, they had cap space last year and didn't do anything which is why I believe Gaine was let go. I think we have to give this horizontal structure this offseason to see what they get done. They've already proven to be aggressive at getting players in that they think will help during the season, I'd like to see what they can do with seven draft picks and sixty million dollars and if I'm wrong I'll eat crow but I have no shame in supporting my team and supporting our players. Russell Wilson was carried by his defense for the first five seasons of his career and every year he gets sacked like crazy. Of last years draft, I think they took the right guy in Tytus Howard for the offensive line at right tackle, now they need a right guard. I think Lonnie Johnson played well early in the season but once he got hurt he lost a bit of tracking speed and well we all saw him in the playoffs, but I think he's going to be a player in the future. Max Sharping performed so well this season everyone forgot he was a rookie. Kahale Waring will be a starter in the future but he's got to get over the injuries, his rookie season was a redshirt season. Charles Omenihu did his thing this season, he now needs to work on his consistency. Xavier Crawford was a sixth round pick that didn't pan out. And Gillaspia contributed to blocking for a 1,000+ yard rusher. So all in all, a pretty solid draft. I don't understand the people freaking out over draft picks, there were no Laremy Tunsils in the draft, I'd rather have Laremy Tunsil than Dillard. Laremy Tunsil cost two first round picks, just like Jalen Ramsey cost two first round picks. I'm good with that
He could hang himself, and it wouldn't matter with this ownership. The thing that infuriates me is that he's really not that bad as an NFL head coach. He's solidly mediocre. I think, and have said before here, that BoB would make a perfectly fine D-1 head coach, molder of young men, and all that. Bad head coaches don't win as much as BoB has. But I'm confident in pronouncing that he's not a championship winning coach, here. Maybe he does pull a Kubiak and win elsewhere after getting canned? Life is strange; it could happen. But it won't happen here. That's not the problem. The problem is that he is an incompetent NFL GM, prone to ridiculously overpaying some players, and tossing aside others who don't mesh with his personality. He is terrible at assessing contract value and draft pick value. He would have to study full time to aspire to be a mediocre GM. I am confident one of the more knowledgeable posters here would be better, provided they had a contracts person to hammer out the fine details. No kidding; he's that bad. And the Texans decided to give this guy the gig fulltime. In addition to still coaching the team. If @Nook is right, and Cal McNair merely cares about the Texans in as much as it improves his social life, this team is in for some dark days. I would not count as certain, Watson or Tunsil's continued employment with the Texans past their immediate contract. Would you think you could win a championship here if you were either player?
And then D. Coordinators got tape, figured out what the new QB liked to do, and what he hated to do. In some cases the rookie relied on athleticism, and wasn't committed to the move/countermove chess match that is a big part of being a successful, veteran NFL QB. (As an example of this, go search for Chris Cooley's articles in the Washington Post, or NY Times, I forget, breaking down RG3's lack of development as a QB. They are unflinching, detailed, and utterly brutal in their assessment.) Watson appears to have survived the first round of move/countermove, though I question his longevity under this kind of abuse. That first 7 games was really special to watch though.
TEXANS 2020 NFL DRAFT PICKS 2nd round (57th overall) 3rd round (90th overall) 4th round (from Miami, TBD) 4th round (TBD) 5th round (TBD) 7th round (TBD) Plus possibly two compensatory picks ranging in the third and fourth round and the sixty million in cap space, I think they have enough capital to fill holes. We didn't have a first or second round pick two years ago when we got Justin Reid in the third and nobody died. Relax on the draft capital suicide plans
I never thought Bob McNair was a *bad* owner. He was, like much of this organization, fine. But I really hoped Cal would bring a different energy/urgency to the franchise. But that statement - about winning 10 games and the division.... Honestly? It may be one of my lowest moments as a fan. Teams should NEVER be as knee-jerk as fans so I've appreciated the patience. But this team needed a shake-up in SOME capacity (and has needed it for a few years) so to double-down on BO'B and ensure that that won't happen.... Man.
Watson wasnt really good this postseason either. He played well for maybe 2 quarters but overall he was thoroughly mediocre or even bad depending on ones expectations of him. He won because Josh Allen was downright horrendous and comical even. There were some times this season when Watson looked like a superstar but in the aggregate he has not lived up to expectations at all. If one were to believe a head coach has influence on QB development that's not a ringing endorsement for BOB.
Yes because all we want is to get so far and then get embarrassed. Who wants a Superbowl right? Definitely not us.
I tend to agree...I personally, just don't understand how BoB gets a pass for being a mediocre coach, at best, and gets full control. He mortgaged the future for a quick fix and that will come back to haunt the franchise, IMHO... Any who, I do think the fan base, and rightly so, want more than division titles, they want AFC Championship appearances and Super Bowl appearances...With BoB in control, I just don't see it happening...
Agreed on opposing defenses getting tape and adjusting to new talent, but it seemed to me the offensive play calling was more creative those first 7 Deshaun games. It seemed more college-like with the threat of end-arounds added to the possibility of a Deshaun pass or zone read. Another way to put it is it looked more current Kansas City those first 7 games than it has since, and what's strange about that is I believe Bill O'Brien was calling plays that year as well.
Completion % TD INT Rate 2018: 59% 1 1 69.7 2019: 66% 5 0 104.6 Just based on the numbers, Deshaun has improved as a playoff performer. And last I checked the qb coach was named Carl Smith and he's credited with the development of Russell Wilson. We keep asking Billy O to delegate and when he does he still gets all the blame One team wins a superbowl every year, set realistic expectations
LMAO there's setting realistic expectations, and then there's accepting mediocrity. You're doing the latter by saying this. BOB went all-in with his trades, and there was pretty much zero measurable improvement in any facet of our game. Offense was pretty much identical to last year, and defense took a pretty big step back. The only unit that can truly be proud right now is Special Teams. And given the price we've paid to build this offense, averaging the same number of yards, and scoring less PPG than last year is downright unacceptable.....especially when you consider our brilliant Coach/GM is supposedly an "offensive guru."
They won a playoff game, they didn't do that last year. You said it yourself, Billy O went all in and the defense took a step back. The defense let us down, the offense wasn't perfect but it was good enough if the defense does its job