No I didn't. I said that since Smith got here McNair has not brought in a counsel to evaluate the organization structure like he did with Dan Reeves. To my knowledge Bob McNair has not hired a consultant to evaluate the team's organization (not the coaching staff, but the GM/player personnel department) since Dan Reeves. He has of course used outside organizations to work on the coaching search, etc. and has talked informally with other owners and retired execs, etc. about coaches, but Rick Smith has not undergone a formal evaluation from an outside counsel.
Yes, I get all that... its just entirely baffling how people think its "ok" and are willing to accept it. I fully understand the Kubiak-Shanahan relationship much better. Gary worked for his dad, modeled his entire coaching philosophy under him, and spent a lot of time with Kyle in the process. Rick was never chosen by McNair, and has time and time again been a part of the "wrong" decision... I get it, they're all close.... but there needs to be a new person in charge of this franchise.
Wasn't the Osweiler signing a move that McNair and Smith made? And since O'Brien has been coach, he's only picked one QB from the draft (Savage) which was in the 3rd round. Given all of that, he's still done well IMO. But if you aren't going to let the coach have a more free decision on taking guys, then what's the point of having a coach like O'Brien. Who knows what else has gone on behind closed doors. I'm willing to give O'Brien the benefit of the doubt over McNair and Smith though because we've seen the same old **** with them for the past 15 years. What I do know is, they won't be upgrading coaches if they fire O'Brien after this season. There aren't really any upgrades available.
I think where you are not connecting with me and others in this thread is you think we are "ok" with it or that we don't agree someone new needs to be in charge. I TOTALLY agree with you. I'm telling you why I don't think it will happen. I hate it, it sucks and it drains me as a fan that wants to see change.
As an outsider to the Texans with no real knowledge of the organization I'll say this. There seems to be serious problems with in the hierarchy of the team. With all the leaks with all the speculation there is serious discontent. To the point maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing if changes are made. If the GM and coach do not agree on things let alone like each other then what chance does the organization really have to rise above this stagnant level. 9-7 is average and you can't even say they are getting better it's just the Colts have gotten worse and jags are the jags only the Titans have made a move in the forward direction. Now back to the topic at hand. I do believe if the Texans lose to the Raiders on Saturday then by Monday O'Brian will be out. Jay Glazer is right way more than he is wrong. Something seems off. Personally if O'Brian is out then Smith should be as well or to me it shows McNair is fully behind Smith and in that case why would any respectable Head Coach consider the Texans when you are obviously the 3rd wheel. The Osweiler decision alone should doom Smith but topped with Hoyer, Mallett, and Fitzpatrick no GM should be able to be wrong on so many QBS and keep his job.
After this mess of a season and watching the play of Brock after he was glorified all preseason, nothing anyone in the Houston media, especially in particular Pancakes and John Harris say holds any weight with me. Cakes is the beat writer, his job is to smooth the public image of the team. If the building was on fire, Cakes would be in front of it saying "There's no fire in here, the smoke you see is from the barbecue we're having inside". I don't believe a single word that comes out of his fat lips and none of you should either. On the other hand, BOB leaving wouldn't be the worst thing as long as we keep our defensive staff in order, if that means promoting Rac to HC to keep Vrabel then so be it. Rac as HC wouldn't **** with the offense, he'll hire a staff and let them figure out the strengths of Brock. This whole season is a mess, I'm fairly certain BOB is the one spreading rumors of his exit to gauge the market of his value and try and pull a power play to get Rick out of the gm office
Okay, I'll take out my crayons for you if you really need to understand. First and foremost, it's foolish to just look at the 9-7 record this season and equate it to the 9-7 records of the previous 2 years because this season the team could have won 10 if they wanted to. They chose to sacrifice the last game by benching starters, including the entire starting defense in the 2nd half. So you've got a one game improvement right there. Now let's take into consideration what the Texans had to deal with this season. Let's start with the IR situation, here's all of the players currently on IR Ballentine, Lonnie S Dillon, K.J. S Drummond, Kurtis S Fairbairn, Ka'imi K Johnson, Kevin CB Martin, Nick C Miller, Braxton WR Newton, Derek T Rivers, Gerald OLB Still, Devon DE Strong, Jaelen WR Washington Jr., Tony OLB Watt, J.J. DE You'll notice 4 DB's including Kevin Johnson, who was one of the best on the roster, you'll notice the starting center, you'll notice 2 WR's who were going to be important pieces in the offense, you'll notice the starting right tackle, oh and you'll notice the best defensive player in the NFL. Those are kind of huge hits to the team and yet if the Texans wanted to, they could have had 10 wins. How many teams do you know that can suffer injuries like that, as early in the season as the Texans suffered them, and still be on track to win 10 games? Probably not many. Certainly none of the previous 2 Texans teams. Now let's move on to the players who did actually play. We both know the QB situation was a disaster this season, so there's really no reason to harp on it more, it's an understood so let's move on. When it comes to the WR corps, we had 2 that got knocked out with injury and Nuk having a terrible season where he was running the wrong routes and dropping passes. As to Will Fuller, he started out strong, but baby hands also struggled all season with passes bouncing off his baby hands and he also had on again off again injuries. When you add up the WR corps performing poorly, the QB struggling with inaccuracy and bad decision making, and the O line being a patchwork disaster.....who would expect a lot from that offense? I mean, that's absolutely a recipe for disaster.....and yet the Texans were set to outperform the previous 2 seasons anyway. That suggests that this team is significantly better than the team was the last 2 seasons and will be even better than they were this season when they get all of those starters they lost back. You know, or you could just look at the final win loss records and base your hot take on that.
How long can Rick Smith keep his job realistically? He's best buds with both McNair's, but if Bob dies and Cal takes over, Rick can't keep his job indefinitely, can he? He has to be removed at some point, right? Right now, Smith is the 7th longest tenured GM in the NFL and two of the guys ahead of him are guys that can't be fired because they own the team. And none of the guys ahead of him have gone through 3 coaches. It has to end eventually, I just wonder when.
I agree with Bobby, the team is definitely better. They still aren't close to being contenders though because they don't have a functioning offense. But they have gotten better and I think it's a testament to Bill OBrien that his team NEVER quit on him. These guys have played their butts off for 3 years despite it feeling like they are getting nowhere during many games.
That's the rumor, but we know that BOB previously picked Fitz, Hoyer, and Mallett to be his QB's. He even got Smith to trade away assets to get Mallett.....so maybe it wouldn't really be a bad thing if BOB didn't have say over who the QB was.
I know Smith and McNair are close... I just don't buy that a separation is impossible. McNair still cares wildly about the image of his team... and right now, with bickering amongst the front office and coaching... it looks terribly embarrassing (in a year where all eyes will be on Houston come SB time). And whoever was behind getting Brock has to be held acountable. After Brock signed, Smith was the first person (via John McNair) to proclaim "Mr. McNair, we have a QB now!"
For that reason alone, you have to keep BOB....and he's under contract, so that's why I don't believe that there will be a parting of the ways. I also think if Smith pushes for it, he'll be fired. Now there is plenty about BOB as a coach that I don't like, but you can't argue with results and as long as the team doesn't quit on him, I see no reason to make a move.
I'm not TRYING to give defense to OBrien here on QB evaluation, but there is a HUGE difference between picking Osweiler as a potential franchise quarterback and picking those other guys has bridge quarterbacks. The bigger issue with OBrien on quarterbacks is not who he picked as bridges, it's that the team has not invested in the future of the position. I don't even want to hear about Tom Savage because they stuck him on IR for no good reason and removed him from the equation.
I'm with you that I think it would be all kinds of stupid to fire Obrien with the one exception that if you were saying "look, as an organization we just aren't good enough and we are scrapping the whole thing." OK, I can get behind that. Removing the coach though, despite my issues with him, is foolish. I do think he needs to be forced to hire a new OC like Kubiak was forced to hire a new DC.
Mallett wasn't picked as a bridge though, he was traded for as a potential franchise QB, a BOB pick. I just don't have any faith in BOB's ability to pick QB's, not that I have any faith in Smith's ability to do so either. And I don't really consider the Osweiler deal to be that big of a deal. It was taking a chance on the perceived best FA QB on the market and it was only a 2 year risk, I don't see it as a team killing move like some want to talk it up as. QB is still a problem, and it might remain a problem, but so long as the defense is elite, the O line is more like what it should have looked like this season rather than what we were left with after injury, and the run game is on point, i think the team will be fine.
Mallet wasn't traded for as a potential franchise QB. He was traded for as a gamble. They gave up basically nothing for him.
Well I think we are saying the same thing here. He was a gamble, sure, but the gamble was that he could potentially be a franchise QB. When you trade for a young QB, that's effectively what you are saying. You pick up an old guy like Fitz or Hoyer, then for sure it's just a stop-gap measure, when you trade for a young guy, it usually means you think there is a future there.
Either way, it's just yet another example of BOB getting the QB's he wants and those QB's ending up garbage. It's why the narrative that all the bad moves are Smith and all the good moves are various coaches falls flat IMO.
