I was all for Kubiak's firing. When you have a team that had such high expectations fall so short with a coach that has been around so long sometimes change is the only option. But I never thought it was all his fault. The bottom line is we suck and no coach is going to make this team a playoff team without player personnel changes. Kubiak is a better coach than most on her give him credit for. Schaub fell apart on him and Case was not the answer. It's easy to see that Wade who was showcasing his talent came up short as well. On the bright side we lost 10 games less than a td. A good qb could easily get us half of those wins back. We have JJ Watt to anchor the defense. The return of Brian Cushing add a corner and another pass rusher and we get another 2 or 3. Mercilus definitely improved and Reed looked better towards the end of the season. I expect both of them to contribute next year. If Foster comes back healthy and true to his old form we can win almost all of them. That's a 10+ win team . Something to look forward to.
He built a very productive offense within 3 years on a team that had ONE salvageable player (Andre Johnson) when he arrived here... and he had less resources than the expansion Texans had. I don't care about how many close games this team lost.... the Bills lost a bunch of close games too, doesn't mean I think they're on the verge of greatness. I also don't think this team is just a good QB away. However, Kubiak had 8 years to do something here... he got every opportunity warranted, and had some decent teams. I think his greatest accomplishment was to eventually make this team competitive from the depths they had to start with (as I said earlier, worse than an expansion team)... but part of the problem with starting from behind is that once the team finally did get good enough, they were capped out by all the high draft picks.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>One other name to watch with the Lions opening: Gary Kubiak</p>— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) <a href="https://twitter.com/davebirkett/statuses/420644581965721600">January 7, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Don't think he'd hurt the production of Stafford/Bush-Bell/Calvin... probably would get more out of them than any other coach has.
Wow if Gary gets a crack at stifling Calvin's career too. Jason Foria and Pettigrew will combine for 25 touchdowns, and Calvin will have 7.
Sure. But not all losing records are created equal. The Bills aren't a mere 12 months removed from a 24-12 stretch (including two playoff wins) with, more or less, the same young-ish/talented nucelus still in tact. If O'Brien and his staff are competent, I think the Texans can win at least 6 games next year even if they whiff on personnel changes. If they have a good draft - not great or exceptional - just good (and Kubiak's first draft remains his best, FWIW) and get Foster and Cushing back healthy (with Foster being the largest IF), there's no reason this team can't win 8+ and challenege for the playoffs in a conference that doesn't really have a dominant team beyond Manning and Brady.
Kubiak needs a year or two off before becoming a coach again. He should look at some tapes look what he did wrong as coach and learn from his mistakes and move on.
Pretty ridiculous if you think Kubiak "stifled" Andre's career. Sure, his TD #'s weren't where they "could" have been, but its not as if Kubiak is telling his QB's NOT to throw the ball to him. Additionally, it would be pretty dumb of an offensive-minded coach to tell his QB's to force the ball into a certain receiver regardless of whether or not he was double/triple teamed. In this offenses' most productive years, they were scoring TD's every which way... and in their least productive years, they were stalling out in the red zone consistently.
Right? This idea that Andre Johnson would be some 150/2,000/20 WR every year if not for his coach/QB defies rational thinking. As is, he's a remarkably productive WR - historically producitve - save TDs. And while I think some of that can be placed at Schaub/Kubiak's feet - not all of it should be. I can think of a slew of WRs who played with far worse HC/QB combos and found the end zone far more often.
Sure... and the Bills didn't just have a 2-14 season either. If you think this team is just waiting to be the one that went 10-6 or 11-1 again... you're delusional. They're far closer to the team that finished 2012 1-3, and looked completely lost against the Patriots (twice). That being said, there will be a lot of roster turnover on this team... and the "nucleus" you speak of is basically Foster/AJ80/Cushing/Watt. Given those players positions, its entirely possible they all have productive/healthy seasons, and this team still doesn't win more than 6 games. They obviously need better QB play (and may be relying on a rookie for that), they need more production from their OLB, they need more competent secondary play, they need better O-line play, they need better special teams play (and better players... which comes with depth... which comes with better personnel decision makers). I currently don't put the Texans above other non-playoff makers like the Ravens, Steelers, Dolphins, BILLS, or Jets. Sure, they "should" be better than the Titans, Jaguars, and Raiders... but on the flip side, they just lost to all three of those teams this year, and there's nothing to prevent those teams from making similar strides/improvements that you're planning for the Texans.
Won't happen. There is no chance Kubiak gets another NFL head coaching job this year or probably ever. His best chance is to become a coordinator who gets the interim tag after a firing.
Schaub got criticized for locking in on Andre and not spread the ball around. Kubiak gets criticized for stiffling Andre's career. Makes sense.
If Norv Turner can get another HC gig (or 3), Kubiak will get one eventually as well (if he wants it).
You have a habit of overextending me when we get into the 2014 Texans’ prospects. I never mentioned 2011 or 2012 in terms of a threshold for this current team. In fact, I was far more modest: 6 wins by virtue of a simple (and much needed) competent coaching change; 8+ if they also have a good/healthy offseason (which isn't remarkably far-fetched; O'Brien coached against a lot of guys he's about to draft and Cushing is all but guaranteed to be 100% by summer). Again, as we saw upgrading from Bush to Phillips, some of this may very well be solved through coaching. Phillips' defense puts a lot of pressure on his secondary, and if the front seven can't generate pressure, they're very vulnerable. Guessing O'Brien ultimately plays a defense similar to Crennel's, that'll change immediately. As for the nucleus, let's add a top 5 LT, a promising 21-year old WR; two above-average TEs; Chris Myers; and a not remarkably insane hope that, as Phillips did with guys like KJ, O'Brien's staff can wring production out of still-young players like Reed, Merciless and Swearinger, not to mention a slew of young OL. That's a mediocre group of football teams right there; no reason the Texans can't at least join them next year. Kubiak coaxed 4 additional wins in his first year out of a remarkably worse roster in 2006. I don't see 8-8 as unreachable.
Good, knowing him and his friend only policy, he offer the lions 1st for the next two years for Schaub.
OBviously stifled is a strong word, but look at Calvin's seasons and don't think that's what AJ could've had, especially in the early years when this team was starved of talent. We've seen over the Kubes era that Andre is used as a decoy in the red zone. And it wasn't until we found Foster that our red zone woes let up. If a team is known for being really good between the 20s and crap in the redzone maybe they weren't forcing the ball to their best weapons. Many of Andre's RZ targets were baseline crosses. When the rest of the league were throwing jump balls pitting their 6'3" WR against a 5'11 DB, Andre got overthrown baseline crosses. 100/1500 is great, and he would've been the only player to hit that 3 years in a row if it weren't for his injury, but he had what it took to rival Rice. And instead we have to settle on hoping he keeps it up so he can be the first Texan HOF, one of the only good things to come out of watching games this season. He only JUST had his best career game this season, once a new QB forced Kubiak to adjust his gameplan.
