Gotta love the "Fire Rick Smith because he's done a bad job" being followed with "Keep BOB for at least one more season because Rick Smith did a good job" that I've been hearing so often lately.
Which is why both need to go. Or, if mediocrity is your goal, give them both 10 year extensions. If your goal is to get to and win a Super Bowl, get rid of both.
You know it's getting real when The Chronicle allows a Teflon Rick Must Go article to be posted. Only a fool would fire Bill O'Brien after one bad, injury-ravaged season. ... A power structure that ultimately undercut everything the remade Texans were trying to accomplish. ... Is McNair going to stand by the GM who signed Brock Osweiler -- then later traded a 2018 second-round pick to Cleveland, just to get rid of the $72 million albatross -- and force out a coach/offensive coordinator who averaged 34.7 points a game with Watson leading the show and has kept the Texans sewn together four straight years? ... But the Texans must also build a wall around their young arm, reconfigure a defense that now ranks dead last in the NFL in average points allowed (27.6) and rebuild a top-heavy roster that entered this season with barely better than average written all over it. ... The last time McNair fired a coach, Kubiak ended up winning a Super Bowl in Denver with a well-known collection of former Texans. Smith outlasted the house cleaning in 2013, but 12 years of rewarding mediocrity should finally end. Those horrible 2-14 Texans and this year's woeful 4-11 team have one thing in common. O'Brien deserves one more shot with Watson. McNair needs a new GM. Brian T. Smith might get fired for writing this stuff, He/his editor will certainly get called into Teflon Rick's office for one his patented "special talks". Not that it'll make a difference to the McNairs or Smith's everlasting employment.
They've got a bunch of injury prone stars with the worst OL that I've seen in a long time. They also need atleast 2 CB' and 1 safety and a TE. You got faith after 11 years of proof that RS can fill all of those holes? If Watson doesn't make it back and STAY healthy the Texans org is screwed. (An old narrative?)
I have more faith in Rick Smith's ability to come up with talent than I do BOB's ability to coach that talent. A GM that managed to come up with players like Bouye and Foster as undrafted FA's, a GM that traded up to draft potential elite franchise QB Watson, a GM that drafted Clowney, Hopkins, Merclilus and Watt is a GM that can get you talent. Are there holes on the team? Of course, but now that you have a solid core of talent at the most difficult to shore up positions, you can put all of your effort into O line, DB's, and TE. It's one hell of a lot harder to find a potentially elite franchise QB, and Smith managed to do that after he stopped paying attention to the guys BOB wanted to play at QB. He's not a great GM, but he's not the problem. The problem is a head coach that was billed as an offensive guru that still thinks Lamar Miller is a between the tackles power back. An offensive guru that has no clue how to manage the clock late in games, an offensive guru that seemingly knows nothing about running an offense. Sure Watson made him look good for a few games, but the rest of BOB's entire career shows just how incompetent he really is.....and what an amazing job Rick Smith did in locking up the QB position for the future.
That wouldn't be the worst idea, but you really can do worse at GM than Rick Smith. There's no guarantee that the next guy would be better.....and how many GM's get fired the year after drafting a potentially elite franchise QB? I'd guess none.
That would be without a doubt the most disastrous decision possible. Fire everyone? Okay. Fire BOB? Even better. Do nothing at all for a year? Meh. Make BOB the new GM and keep him as a terrible head coach? Dumpster fire.
I don't trust BOB to do anything honestly. He hasn't shown competence at anything football related and having a BOB picked GM just sounds like a great way to fill the team with Hoyers and Malletts
RS has had 11 years and 2 regimes to put a contender on the field. He's failed, how many more years and excuses do you want to give him? Yes you can do worse at GM but you cant win a championship with him as GM. So McNair needed to move on after 2010 he chose not to and the time since then has been wasted. (End of A.J.'s career and Watt's career.) How much more time is going to be wasted? (Watson,Clowney and Hopkins careers) I'm sorry RS just isn't the guy to bring this city a championship, if that's important to the McNair's.
He failed to build a contender? Really? I think if you look at it more closely that happened twice. The first time it fell apart when Schaub went down then they rebuilt and right now would be considered a Super Bowl contender if the team was healthy. When it comes to Smith, I agree, you can do worse at GM....I'm not sure how much worse you can do at head coach with BOB though.
Since BOB is likely to stay and reports were it's him or Ricky, we could be seeing Rick get promoted after tomorrow's game real soon
Or those reports were BS and they change nothing. I honestly hope the Texans aren't stupid enough to give BOB more control over the team.
If they keep bob they need to move in from smith. Even if it gives bob more control at least we’d finally be able to evaluate knowing who was at fault. The organization can’t just keep a bad pairing with no accountability
Would be the dumbest thing McNairs could do. Keeping Smith in the building, he'd spend all of his time undermining the HC and whispering in the owner's ears. Fire one or the other. Big mistake, imo. He's not a GM, he's only a coach still learning on the job and he already doesn't have time to do his job and his family. If they keep O'Brien they need to bring in a GM with football/scouting chops and give him control. And that GM must insist McNairs no longer involve themselves in player decisions.
