He was sold as an offensive mastermind, that's my point. Since he's been here, the offenses did nothing but get worse and worse every year till Rick Smith traded up for Watson and he caught fire for 5 games. So essentially the ONLY thing I keep hearing to justify BOB as a head coach was that Rick Smith did a good job trading up for Watson.....and funny enough it's so often right next to a call for Rick Smith to be fired LOL
And this probably won't sink in either, O'Brien built this roster with Rick. They both need to go. These are his hand picked guys on offense. The roster won't improve with the same front office.
Yes the offense was impressive but I think a lot of that was Watson creating outside of the pocket. I think we need a guy who will build a good OL and develop him in a pro system. No excuses for the D, but it seems like they have been spending more on offense. Osweiler, Lamar Miller, tons of wr and speed guys drafted. I think Crennel has at least proven he can lead a good D. I have never seen a consistently good offense from Obrien, and he looks best when he scraps his system. It is also seriously concerning how many guys get concussions in his offense
That's fine with me. I have no idea to what extent personnel decision making is split between the two, but the poster I was responding to was seeming to imply O'Brien is the problem, not Smith.
I can point to something good Smith does, I can't point to something good BOB does. Smith has done remarkably well at least in the first round in the draft and he just traded up for what is looking to be a potentially elite franchise QB. With BOB, the best you can say is that he didn't hold Watson back too much.....that he didn't COMPLETELY waste the great defenses that the Texans had the last few seasons. There's no question that Rick Smith has his share of blunders, but there's something the team could potentially miss if he weren't here anymore, I can't think of anything the team would miss if BOB was gone.....I mean maybe we'd miss players being completely misused and his awful play calling and clock management, but I doubt it.
This is the correct answer. Either they both go, or they’ll both be back. My money is on the latter but again both have shown high levels of incompetence.
I agree with his nose for elite talent, I've complimented his first round drafting to many. But many of Smith's strongest picks have been defensive, and you at least have to admit O'Brien hasn't had much to work with until given Watson. And again, for the hundredth time, you can point to the fact that our offense was the highest scoring in the league when we had Watson, something that you can't just give the head coach 0 credit for. Is it possible O'Brien is a great play-caller for a mobile quarterback? It's possible.
Part of the reason BOB has had so little to work with is that the QB's he wanted were terrible. It wasn't until Rick Smith went out on his own and traded up for Watson that the position improved. If he kept bringing in BOB guys it would have remained terrible. In pointing at the few games Watson played, how much credit goes to the guy who has looked incompetent during the rest of his entire career and how much credit goes to the potentially elite franchise QB? I just think it's a stretch to think that BOB learned how to call competent plays given that he was still screwing up during those games, it's just that Watson was good enough to overcome BOB, something that no other QB was capable of doing.
A lot of it was Watson’s elusiveness/atheleticism that had to be there to account for the bad o-line. I know you want to believe that BOB had absolutely nothing to do with Watson’s dynamic surge into the NFL, but that would be just as hypocritical as saying that Kubiak didn’t start winning till he started playing Arian Foster more (due to injury... he didn’t win the job in training camp... sound familiar?). Crenel is halfway retired. Expecting him to rebuild this defense is asking a lot (which even without injury needs major help in the secondary... an area they invested so many picks and money already to, they had to let go of established good players). Sometimes, there’s just a good match that works out. If Watson regresses under a different coach next year, I’m sure somehow BOB will get the blame as well. There’s just too much value in Watson’s career/legacy to not at least consider to let them continue what they started.
Well Kubiak built good offenses both before and after Foster. He went to Baltimore as OC and turned that offense around in 1 year, making Forsett look like a pro bowler. I think there is a lot of value in Watson's career. But I want a coach who will protect him and develop a pro system for him (not Clemson's). I think O'Brien relied too much on his scrambling ability which isn't a long term strategy. And Watson got injured. No way to say what a better OL could have done. but maybe Watson is still playing for a coach who values OL. On top of that, O'Brien never proved in new england or Penn state that he's an offensive mind like Kubiak. O'Brien was acting OC for one year then didn't get the job permanently. He went to Penn State where the offense was mediocre. I am seriously wondering why he was such a coveted candidate in the first place, or if the Texans just fell for his leaks.
Sure seems to be a lot of vultures circling to hire O'Brien every time we raise the conversation about firing him. Giants, now the Cardinals. I seem to remember last season at least (3) franchises looking to hire new coaches wanted to "wait and see what Houston does with O'Brien" before moving forward with other potential hires. That means a lot more to me than any opinions I read on this message board.
let's face it b.o.b's personality would clash with any GM, a traditional GM or a mediator like we have here. B.O.B wants total control that can't happen until he wins something. If other teams want him so badly, they know what they have to do. You start with a 1st round pick. I'd like to see everyone healthy including b.o.b for next season. Two simple lessons would make him a better coach. "What would bill bellicheat want me to do here. Give him back the ball so I can give goat the opportunity to compile a winning drive. He does it against Great defenses?" "Lamar miller up the middle on third and short? Hmmm. TANIA!!!"
John Clayton thinks that BOB and the Texans will part ways; around the 4:00 minute mark: http://sports.mynorthwest.com/category/podcast_player/?a=10025936&sid=1141&n=John+Clayton
Once again, a large reason BOB has a career of "incompetent play-calling" is because Deshaun is the first ever semi-competent QB he has coached here. All other guys are backups, period. Some not even competent backups. You can blame BOB for hand-picking duds, but there was really nobody else out there, and since the Texans weren't in a position to have a top-pick (BOB can't even do that right!), he didn't have much of a choice. The offense was middle of the pack with Fitzy/Hoyer, thats not really that bad considering. The only year the offense bottomed out was when your hero Rick Smith moved heaven and earth to bring us franchise QB Brock Osweiler. I'm sorry, but if we are firing him because of a rift with Rick Smith that's ridiculous. Either clean house, or give this whole party one more year. Rick Smith has more to do with our history of mediocrity than anyone else.
Did it matter? Nope. I wanted Kubiak to stay, but of course arm-chair Texans experts know all. We fired him simply for the sake of change, without addressing the fundamental reason this franchise can't breakout into elite territory (Rick Smith). But by all means, lets fire B.O.B. without considering the fact that the other options are terrible. Let's throw a bandaid out as head-coach and watch B.O.B. go win a super-bowl with the Cardinals.
This isn't true. There have been several good QBs drafted and traded the past few years OBrien wanted to go with Fitz, Hoyer, mallet and Osweiler
