I suppose, although never past the divisional round after 13 years? I think people want hope and there isn't a lot. The team being worse than an expansion team when prior coaches took the reins IS an indictment of the franchise. Hopefully BOB turns it around. I am not so skeptical of his coaching as I am with their talent evaluation.
I find it hilarious that you use try and use this to help make your "point"... of course they had the #1 pick in their first year of existence, and of course they used it to draft the #1 projected QB out of college (stupidly), and the two best overall defensive prospects on the board (one of which is an all-pro, and the other of which has the looks of a future all-pro and he's only 22). The 2002-2006 years did set the stage for what has happened thereafter. In hindsight, that 2006 draft was most directly responsible for making this team respectable for the very first time.
So by all means, stop following them and stop commenting on them. I seriously doubt it'll hurt anyone's feelings. The whining gets old.
The Moon Oilers never made it past there in seven consecutive playoff appearances, and they had far more talent up and down the roster on both sides of the ball. It happens... for a number of reasons... of course you do have to make the playoffs to even get a chance to get that far. Considering this team has only had 2 direct chances, and was basically starting from behind in 2006 (with no extra expansion picks), I'm not as worried about the absolute number of playoff wins. And, its simply a moving target. Once they get to the AFC championship game, it will be "they've never gone to the SB"... and once they do that, they'll actually have to win it (unless they go on some Buffalo Bills like run of 4 straight... which to this day I feel is as big or rarer of an accomplishment as just winning one random one). Fine, you want to get mad about something from 9 years ago (or 13 if you look at the bad decisions made prior to 2002), go ahead... although its really not being all that constructive to discussing how to improve the present day team.
The same could be said for you whining about all the other fans and posters on this forum and how everyone sucks. If you don't like them, stop posting and commenting. I guarantee it won't hurt anyone's feelings.
Similarly, where they were in 2006 has nothing to do with where they are today. There's too much roster turnover in the NFL. Just from 2011 to 2014, for example, the Colts replaced their entire roster except 7 players. It doesn't take 9 years to build a team in the NFL, even from scratch.
I do it for the betterment of the forum. I don't think anyone wants this forum to devolve into nothing but a bunch of awful whiny fair weather fans spouting off hot takes.
Yep, if anything it's probably easier in the NFL. Or maybe not easier but the timeline is shorter. In baseball you need to develop a great farm system to be competitive. It takes several drafts to do that. In basketball you need at least two superstars just to think about contending. They are extremely difficult to acquire. Can take a decade for some franchises. In the NFL you basically need to draft well and be smart with the cap. Teams get good and bad very quickly based on this. Kubiak achieved this briefly, but then overpaying veterans, injuries and bad drafts killed it. The NFL is much more a team sport, so you can win with a variety of different rosters.
It doesn't. They built a possible contender by 2011. Maybe they should have gotten there 1 year sooner. Maybe they should have contended longer than 2 years. Starting last year, this is a new regime finally taking over a not worse than expansion franchise for the first time in this franchises existence (whereas where they were in 2006-2009 was a direct result of the actions starting in 2002). The team facing the most similar obstacles (new expansion teams with rules designed to hamper early success) was the Browns... Say what u want about timeframes and this teams lack of success till 2011, show me where that franchise ended up turning it around after recovering from the expansion idiocy? Similarly, after the Jaguars fell apart following their early contending years (largely due to lax expansion rules that were toughened up), where have they been? The Panthers caught lightning in a bottle for one year (following the similar early success), and they've also been spinning wheels trying to build something consistent.
I think people are concerned with the direction the new regime is taking. Last year we had a pretty good defense and OL. This year we appear to be littered with holes. Trading six picks for two busts is absolutely catastrophic in the NFL.
It's fine to be concerned. But it's been 3 games and this team has justifiable injuries to starters. I feel they're better suited to win games this year... With a slightly tougher schedule (pending how the division opponents really are).
SMH, I wish you were at least an intelligent troll, or even a funny troll. As it is I just feel sorry for you.
You can find it hilarious but they had three #1 picks and likely not a Hall of Famer amongst them. Set the stage for what happened next? The peak being getting their ass handed to them in the divisional round after completely blowing probably home field through out? Yeah.... If that is the best you have to show for 13-14 years, you are an uninspiring and mediocre franchise.
I know you don't follow football that closely judging by your takes related to the sport, but you do realize that Mario Williams has 92 sacks at 30 years old right? He's averaging 12 sacks a season in Buffalo and if he gets 2 more seasons at that rate he's in the top 20 all time....It's very likely that he ends up in the HOF one day. As to Clowney, no one knows this early in his career what he'll be.
Also, I should probably point out that it's beyond asinine to complain about a lack of HOFers from a franchise that came into existence in 2002. Julius Peppers is the future HOFer drafted 2nd overall that season and he's still playing football. Have some perspective. How many players drafted after the Texans formed are in the HOF? Don't worry I'll wait while you look it up.
While I'll just concede that you have some amazing foresight to know that neither Mario nor Clowney will fail to make the easiest HOF out there... I will point out that since 1998, we're looking at only one for-sure HOFer right now that was drafted #1 overall (Peyton Manning). Whatever... pretty sure if they emulated the pathways of Cleveland, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Carolina, Arizona, Cincinnati, Detroit, Atlanta, St. Louis, NY Jets, Kansas City, Oakland, Minnesota, Chicago, Tampa, San Diego, Washington, Buffalo, Miami, Denver, and DALLAS since 2002, you'd be saying the exact same thing. (with several of those established teams being even worse in terms of overall playoff appearances and peak result). Basically, you're upset that they're not New England, Green Bay, NY Giants, Indy, Seattle, Baltimore or Pittsburgh... pretty sure those teams could use some more bandwagoning fans.
