Offseason Priorities

They wound up firing 3 defensive coaches; I would surmise an adequate replacement wasn't on staff, and he probably further didn't want to expose interim coaches who might be brought back. Imagine if they had promoted Kollar and the defense continued to struggle - he probably would have been shown the door, too.

You're splitting hairs. After two *very* good years, Brown had a decidedly bad year and Kubiak reacted. Swiftly. To try and add a narrative element of feet-dragging is just fantasy-land semantics. He missed kicks and was let go. Any other accounting of what happened is pure spin.

He gave a once-(very) productive player, who battled through injuries while losing ground on the depth chart, an opportunity to try and make it elsewhere on the team. I guarantee you, that type of respect and patience plays big-time in the locker room; players love a coach that sticks his neck out for them.

It's a wildly overblown non-complaint complaint, rooted in Amobi Okoye (who, FYI, was just 23 when he was released; the guy is younger than Brian Cushing). There's ample evidence to suggest he'll cut bait when its time. This is not, by any stretch, a team full of dead-weight.

 

Normally you could, but this was a defense that was on pace to be the worst defense in league history for the first four weeks of the season, and the fourth worst pass defense in the last 20 years. Shouldn't there be a low point that demands action? Why tolerate incompetence, especially when you're losing, losing when everyone had set their eyes on playoffs. Why wait until the season is over, when it was apparent early that Bush and Gibbs were an obvious mistake? Fear of more peter principle rearing it's head? Inaction out of fear was the same predicament the team was caught in with Kubiak this year. Only in this case, Bush offered no silver lining in what he brought to the defense. Maybe Kollar, maybe some scrub from Denver's turnstyle of DCs. But staying pat on Bush, or at the very least Gibbs, when there were still games left to try and win shows that they were putting something else ahead of winning games.

He was kept for 3 years after his rookie season. I can't imagine Slaton actually winning the KR battle unless his only competition was Trindon Holliday. Patience and loyalty is great, I'm not going to dismiss that at all. But it's a lot easier to swallow that virtue now that this team is winning. Finding out your coach is a great guy after 6-10 isn't much of a silver lining. I've read Quin's quote about guys wanting to stay here, because Kubiak's a good guy. It's all nice and uplifting, but there's probably just as many players who would rather be on a team with wins.

There's got to be a happy medium between the Eagles and what the Texans tried to be for 5 years. What I have dismissed is that maybe Kubiak has matured as a coach, and he'll be less tolerant of dead-weight going forward. We can only hope, since in the end those choices decide wins and losses, and this city and its fans have finally have a taste of winning. We see in Cincy how things go awry when there's a disconnect between the team and its fans.

Nobody's saying this is a team of refuse and lost causes anymore. But there are a few players whom nobody would care to see in uniform again. If what they did with Amobi was considered feet-dragging, how is Jacoby's case any different? There's probably just as many cases of them being swift as them twiddling their thumbs. But the ones they kept their head in the sand about seemed to be the ones making the game breaking mistakes.

 

Thing about Brown was, when the pressure was in, he sucked. Same reason Pittsburgh let him go. The fact that they didn't even bring in competition until the next training camp, and finally cutting Brown just before the season started, kinda eliminates your argument. Texans weren't quick. You see other teams bring in lockers during the season if their own kicker is faltering. The whole "original Texans" got in the way. Carr was here a season too long and should have never received that extension.

 

I really hate typing on my smartphone sometimes.

 

They were on a historically terrible pace after three games the year before and he was able to steady the ship and deliver an above-average defensive performance down the stretch. Plus, IIRC, they were 3-1 after four weeks last year; I know they were 4-2 after six. So they weren’t losing. We all knew it was precarious; I doubt they were oblivious to it – but let’s not re-imagine how things happened.

They’re more invested in these guys than we are; to us, they’re just coaches or players - to them, they’re humans with wives and kids and parents. So NFL coaches are never, ever going to be as impetuous as fans. I think they’re also generally much more patient and much slower to act; they are creatures of habit. They loathe change. Change in the middle of a season is difficult; especially when you consider the number of hours they’ve invested in their system and personnel.

But just because they don’t act as swiftly as fans would want doesn’t mean they don’t act swiftly.

You lost me on this one – what are you talking about?

He was hurt near the end of his second season, which had not been a good one, of course. After that, he made 1 start and totaled 43 carries the next not-even two years. We’re talking about a full-blown third-string RB. You can show that guy – a guy that put up big-time numbers his rookie season – some respect and patience without it impacting your W/L record.

This is akin to fans jumping up and down over the 53rd man on the roster. He had been good; he gave him ample opportunities, in smaller and smaller capacities, to stick with the team.

Very likely; but over the course of four… mostly mediocre seasons, his players never once quit on him. They had every reason in the world to do so last year and didn’t. Part of a coach’s job is to build a culture for his players. Kubiak has very obviously established an environment they love. He respects them, he’s patient; he gives them every opportunity to succeed; and he goes out of his way to protect them.

I have no idea his intentions with Jacoby – but if he is going to release him, I promise he’ll do it in a manner that doesn’t close the door on JJ’s career.

You’re putting the horse before the cart and retroactively calling for a player to be released *before* they make game-breaking mistakes. I’m by no means a JJ advocate – but I do believe that was his first TO as a PR this year, and he’s been above-average, overall, in his returns. I think it’s a little unfair to use hindsight against Kubiak here. There was no overwhelming incentive to release JJ prior to Sunday’s game.

 

Pure revision. Brown made a lot of big kicks for Kubiak prior to ’09.

Sebastian Janikowski wasn’t sitting on the couch; if you’re a competent kicker, you’re on an NFL roster 10 weeks into the season.

Again, HCs are not, by and large, as impetuous as fans. Brown was a very good to great kicker between ’07 and ’08. You’re asking a coach to discard that because of two kicks – that’s not how they operate. He proved a season-long problem and, despite a good track record, Kubiak acted. This hair-splitting idea that they kept him for four weeks in training camp somehow invalidates that they cut him is silly.

Given that Carr, the owner’s golden boy, was forced on Kubiak, I would think a release less than a year later is a pretty clear indicator Kubiak doesn’t drag his feet.