My guess - just my guess: BOB has their ear *for now*. He likely planted seeds of distrust/dislike for Gaine's personnel moves and that led to the firing. But he no longer has anyone to point fingers at. It sure sounds like Easterby has risen in prominence, has Cal's ear and is set-up to win any potential power struggle. Caserio has been with New England since 2001. He is not coming here to go 9-7/10-6 and lose in the first round... From that perspective, this is encouraging.
Again, you could have posted this in 2012 and it still provides as little to the discussion as it does right now... in fact, pretty sure you did post this in 2012. At some point, you've gone from being the "My contacts told me..." guy to the "I told you so" guy to the "blind hater" guy.
Yep; that's how I'm reading it, too. BOB is probably in the inner circle - but I'd be willing to bet there's an inner circle inside the inner circle, and BOB is NOT in that one. This is Easterby/Caserio's team moving forward. And if true, that, to me, is exciting. Outside of the Casserly era, they've never built a team from the front office - it's always been coach-run all the way back to Kubiak.
Do you not grasp that Bill O'Brien will be on his third GM and his 6th season with a record barely above .500? You find me a situation where a HC has had 3 GM's (picking 2 himself) with the lack of success that O'Brien has had. Good luck with that.
You've gone from saying its BOB who's the GM anyways... to now being upset that he's "picking" another one (when he may not even be doing that), to still quoting the pre-Watson record as if it has any pertinence (Watson is the only thing that matters), and as if its going to get him fired sooner than he already is? I know you're not a fan of his. Everybody knows that. You'll probably have vitriol for the next coach they hire as well, which means you're not a fan of the Texans. I just don't see how any of this is pertinent to the power shift that has led to action at a time when there's normally not.... and how you're choosing to read into this as a negative, rather than a possible positive if you're a fan of BOB having less power.
I agree with what you're saying. That said O'Brien is who he is and and the problem with this franchise is the McNair's. They're clueless.
I don't know if you are just arguing to argue (something you are well known to do) or if I am not making myself clear. Yes I am upset that O'Brien has the power to survive mediocrity and having a strong say in naming the GM that was just fired and the GM that is about to be named. That is dysfunctional. Also, yes his pre-Watson matters. How good an actual coach he is does matter. I supported the hiring of Bill O'Brien until it became clear that he really wasn't that good. I'll probably have vitriol for the next head coach? Jumping to conclusions? It depends on who they hire. If they hire someone with a track record of failure, then yes I will not be happy with the hire..... and no, it doesn't mean I am not a Texans fan. It means I have expectations of competence, like the Rockets and Astros have. You can find someone else to argue with. I have explained my opinion and you don't like it, and honestly that doesn't stop the current Texans from being a dumpster fire. When the Texans do something worthy of praise, then I will give it to them.
Oh dear ****ing god...pay more attention. He was also called the reverend, the life coach, the chaplain, the culture coach, etc...when he was hired. Which was comical, because what team needs a "culture coach" more than the Texans, right? We also laughed at the hire because they hired him and hadn't yet hired an actual OC. IIRC (could be wrong on the timing of the hires here). Don't pretend this guy just magically showed up last week, is my main point.
Not arguing just to argue... really trying to see what your angle or take on this development is... other than "BOB sucks! Texans suck!" when this very well may be a move to alter the power structure (which again, I presume, is what you ultimately want?) I don't equate hot-take "they suck, have always sucked, and always will suck... till they don't" type posts to being educated opinions... especially when I know you're capable of more than that. Right now, its borderline obnoxious. Then again, like I said before, you were fairly narrow-minded on Hinch when he was first hired... and into his first playoffs (failure).
Well, its clear they've hired him to be much more than that... did anybody claiming to be an insider here make mention of that?
He was a hand-picked BOB sycophant. YES, we knew this. Sorry you weren't paying attention and laughing along at the time.
Sports Illustrated even recently said that the Texans fired him because Bill O'Brien wanted him hired. There was also an article in the last week discussing how close he and O'Brien are. It is funny how there are all these moving pieces.... except Bill O'Brien.
This is possible. I don't know about Esterby having Cal's ear, it is possible.......... but O'Brien is the one that wanted Easterby and there are reports that O'Brien and Easterby are close. With all of the New England guys it is tough to know what level of input Caserio has had, and accordingly it is hard to know how good or bad he will be. I know he almost left for Miami in 2014. After so many years, I would think that Caserio isn't leaving to be a figure head, but I also know Caserio is good friends with O'Brien.... which reeks of another O'Brien influenced move. I have in the past said Cal deserves a chance to set his own mark on the franchise, even though I am skeptical.
This is the beauty of BOB's whole philosophy. Always need 1-2 more years to prove himself. Don't get a QB for 3 years so that when you do, you can say you need time now. Give up playcalling - let's try that for a year or two. Didn't work? Lets try being playcaller again. Oh, but now the problem was that doing game management and playcalling is too much, so let's get a babysitter Asst HC - another year or two. Oh that didn't work? Change the GM a few times so you can offload blame for a few more years, etc. Outside of Jay Gruden, no active head coach who's been with their team more than 2 years has a worse W-L record than BOB, but he's brilliant at finding ways to need another year or two. I love that his "I gotta coach better" answer for like 4 years straight has worked and no one ever seems to ask "then why haven't you done it?" I really liked this quote from a year ago: "Every year, you have to evaluate," O'Brien said recently. "You have to start with yourself. This will be my seventh year as a head coach (including two seasons at Penn State), and the more I get into this now, I think you have to say like what are your strengths? What is something you love to do?" In year 7, its time to start asking what your strengths are and how you'd like to coach. Maybe in year 9, it will be time to decide. And then we'll need year 11 to get to being comfortable doing those things, and maybe by year 13, we can fairly evaluate.
Can't make a change after 5 years of limited success because they stumbled into a really good QB and OB happens to be his coach and change could ruin him! Like he managed to get more time simply by being the coach when Watson was here which meant you HAD to let him develop Watson lol.