This is my doomsday scenario if BOB's gone but Smith survives. There was plenty of politicking rumors when Kubiak was losing the team, and it's grown louder and more prevalent in the last two years. Nobody but the least of college prospects or the weakest of failed retreads will want to work here. We'll have our pick of Lovie Smith, John Fox, Marvin Lewis, or if we're lucky Todd Haley.
Yeah, that's an example of BOB being an overly emotional idiot and Rick Smith having to be the voice of reason. You don't go into a football game with only 1 QB on the roster simply because your head coach is throwing a temper tantrum about the QB he vouched for and had the GM go get..... BOB couldn't have possibly screwed up that situation worse. First he didn't hold a fair QB competition (as Jayson Braddock eventually called him out for) then when it was obvious he screwed up he jerked things around so much that he created a toxic environment with QB's HE PERSONALLY VOUCHED FOR only a few months before. In the end it was a good thing though because the BS of these years led Rick Smith to ignore BOB's input when it came to QB's which is why the Texans now have Watson instead of yet another BOB project like Savage or another washed up scrub like Hoyer. Being blown out in that game is on BOB for creating that problem to begin with.....and Hoyer wasn't helping things out when he threw that pick 6. Also, I'm sure you know this, but losing Arian Foster to a torn Achilles in that game didn't help things.
Nothing in there. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/texans-sign-brock-osweiler.273154/ There were some more positive O'Brien quotes though. Like I said, the narrative that O'Brien didn't want Brock only popped up anonymously AFTER Brock looked like a disaster. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...ien-landing-osweiler-was-best-move-for-texans Texans coach Bill O'Brien said Sunday that his team has no doubts about Brock. "We didn't just study the seven games," O'Brien told NFL Network's Steve Wyche on Sunday. "We studied all of the snaps he had. He is tough. He is an accurate passer. I like his leadership. Of all the people who have coached him, everybody spoke highly of him." Said O'Brien: "We are really happy with our decision to sign him." The coach then went on to confirm that last year's starter, Brian Hoyer, still has a place as "our backup," but emphasized: "The best move in that position was to go get Brock."
Guess you missed the rumblings/tweets in there about how O'Brien admits he'd never met Oswelier till the press conference, and that his signing didn't necessarily change the way he felt about some draft prospects (like Hackenberg). Granted, he said all the right things that you've been quoting ad-nauseum. Of course he had to be on board with the decision... but to say it was "his" idea? There's plenty of smoke back in that thread itself to see that Smith was very likely the primary architect behind such a deal... and he was the most verbal the instant they signed him. Do you honestly think this was more BOB's idea and he forced Smith to go along with it? Highly doubt that would lead Smith into proclaiming to his uncle Bob that 'We finally got you a QB!!!" At this point, all I want is for Watson to not regress next year... and whoever was primarily responsible for the idea that Brock should be signed to go.
I don't think it's a priority. If an absolutely amazing GM candidate was on the horizon, sure but firing him just to fire him would be foolish. He's not the person calling the plays that lead to consistently terrible offenses every year.....but Smith is the person who got such a good QB that he could make an incompetent buffoon like BOB look competent.....so there's that. Imagine what a legitimately competent head coach could do.
I didn't say it was his idea, I'm arguing he was on board. The idea that Rick Smith came up with the idea and O'Brien eventually came around sounds plausible. What isn't plausible is that OBrien wasnt consulted or that Brock was forced on him. The fact that they didn't interview Brock just shows how incompetent they are. The hack stuff means nothing.
He was on board enough to instantly name him the starter, something he wasn't on board enough with Watson to do. In fact, the very first time BOB talked about Watson, he made it clear that he wouldn't be starting because BOB had his guy already penciled in to start and didn't want to start the guy Smith traded up to get. We can argue about if that was the right thing to do or not, I'm just pointing out how differently he handled the 2 QB's.....you know, till he needed to leak that he was never on board with it in order to make himself look better.
You keep saying Ricky drafted Watson like it wasn’t a no brainer decision. All the QBs where gone everybody in the nfl knew we needed a QB everybody in the nfl knew we where drafting Watson. Even McNair said we needed to draft a QB in the first round. You keep giving him credit for trading up and drafting Watson when he had no other choice.
It wasn't. He had to trade up really far to do so and give up a ton on a guy that 2 other teams passed on for different QB's. They could have traded up earlier for a different QB, they could have waited a while to take a different QB. They didn't, Rick Smith wanted Watson, so they got Watson, a move criticized at the time by talking heads that suggested that no other team even had a first round grade on him.....besides, if you listed to BOB, the team already had their QB of the future on the roster with Savage. I doubt if he was given control he'd have traded up for anyone at all. No matter how hard you try to spin it, this wasn't a "no brainer" like drafting Andrew Luck was, this was a pretty ballsy move that could have easily backfired.....and if it had, you wouldn't be saying that "he had no other choice" because the blunder would fit your narrative.
LOL, not buying what obviously happened.....that's awesome. I didn't even say anything that was in any way controversial....then "Nah, I choose to believe the narratives I've been pushing so I can't believe any of that happened." That was very flat earther of you.
If someone has to take the fall, it's Smith, in my opinion, which is based largely off the fact of how well Watson performed. Yes, Watson may just be an all world talent that is going to perform well no matter what, but the facts say that Watson, coupled with O'Brien, formed the highest scoring offense in the league. To forsake that tandem, especially when it's could create a prolific offense for years, is just stupid, ludacris, ridiculous, whatever you want to call it. O'Brien deserves to, at the very least, coach out the rest of his contract and see how it goes. Decisions like this are why franchises stay mediocre. In the past, McNair has held on to coaches for possibly too long. For him to give a guy the axe too soon, while a change in his MO, would be just as big a mistake.
It was a ballsy move and it paid off big time. We're all happy about it. But the narrative has been pushed so far, based off a simple photograph, to imply that is was solely Smith's decision. Do we know for sure that it was? Legit question. All the literature I've read says decisions are essentially shared. I have seen some things suggesting that Smith provides the types of players O'Brien wants and O'Brien coaches them. Even so, a quarterback is the biggest personnel decision a team can make. It's very difficult to fathom that Obrien had no say in the quarterback. Even if he had little say, it was likely giving Smith a "type" of quarterback, which would mean that he wanted Mahomes or Watson. Maybe we panicked when Mahomes got drafted, maybe not. A lot of predraft talk had us loving Watson, though. Again, what is it that says the move was all Smith? A photograph? A photograph that shows O'Brien sending a text? Most people don't jump for joy while texting. O'Brien is not the type to smile a lot. I don't put much stock in that photograph. The same people that say Smith was solely responsible for Watson are the same ones that are putting the blame of Mallett, Hoyer, Fitz, and all the other bad quarterbacking solely on O'Brien. I don't get it. Obviously, the roles and their definitions are murky. That's why we're having such a debate as a fanbase. Also, you can't trust any report you read because the front office has a leak. Because of that, I say you let O'Brien have this draft. Let him coach out his last year. See how he does. A season isn't much, but perhaps you'll figure some things out about who was responsible for what. Maybe we'll have more to go on as a fan base. Give him an extension if he warrants it. I'm not shy about my positions. I think O'Brien is a good coach that has plenty of learning to do. I think he'll be a successful coach in this league for 20+ years. I don't want to get Bellichecked like the Browns. I'd rather keep him a year longer than he warrants than have 30 years of what ifs. As I said in previous posts, O'Brien and Watson we're prolific. There's no debating that. I understand it sounds like I'm pushing an agenda, but we all have opinions, and mine is why fix what ain't broke?
I would base it on more than that, how about the reaction to him being drafted compared to the reaction of the Osweiler trade? With Osweiler he had strong praise and immediately named him the starter, with Watson he still gave some praise, but not only went out of his way to say from day 1 that he would absolutely not be the starter but he thought he had to mention that the NFL is a much different thing than college. I think it's pretty clear that Savage was his guy and Watson really wasn't. I think that is the case most of the time and that's how things started out. Smith for many years went out and got the guys BOB wanted, guys like Mallett and Hoyer were 100% BOB guys.....and they were all god awful.....and BOB tried to blame that failure on the FO. I think that's when things changed and they stopped paying attention to what BOB wanted. I wouldn't be against having BOB have one more season....but I think that's a good way to get stuck with a terrible coach long term if Watson is good enough to make him look halfway competent when all he's shown his entire career has been incompetence. Even with Watson playing like an elite QB, BOB found ways to lose games with his incompetence as a coach. I don't see that going away. The guy still doesn't realize that Lamar Miller isn't a power back, something that anyone with eyes realized in about 3 foolish attempts. I would say of the 2 of them, Rick Smith has more earned one more season with the Watson pick than BOB has. I'll try to reserve judgement if we have to suffer through another season of him but at this point I'm pretty convinced that there isn't a scenario he couldn't manage to screw up.
