Right... first of all, you assume Kubiak's decision making was "forced" by an undrafted free agent draft pick who had never played in an NFL game before (and all of a sudden is forcing coaching changes by game 3). He started the first 7 games with zero TD's... and ended the last 7 games with zero TD's. You're not going to prove anything was all Kubiak's fault with a 2 game sample size... where he had multiple TD's in each game as more of a regression to the mean. Second of all, if you're blaming Kubiak for purposely using Andre as a decoy, then you have to give him ALL the credit for the amount of looks AJ got elsewhere... give him all the credit for AJ80 having the most 100 catch seasons... give him all the credit for the multiple all-pro teams (which were based on yardage and catches). In the end, Kubiak did not stifle him on the one hand... and then overfeed him on the other.
Here’s Andre Johnson’s 16 game average since 2006: 106/1,446/7*. And here’s Calvin Johnson’s: 85/1,408/10. This idea that he’s been stifled, lessened or hurt by Kubiak/Schaub is just blatantly bananas. * Up from 74/998/4 during the Capers/Carr era, FWIW. Oh, come on – he went 14/273/1 just 14 months ago, for heaven’s sake. This wasn’t the first monster game of his career; stop trying to create this false reality of Johnson being underserved by Kubiak/Schaub – it’s patently untrue. I don’t have the time ( or desire, frankly) to log the other top WRs (I’m guessing Welker’s averaged more receptions/year) – but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a WR who has put up better numbers across the board since 2006.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Lions interview ex-Texans coach Gary Kubiak <a href="http://t.co/Xh6Ci5OLiA">http://t.co/Xh6Ci5OLiA</a></p>— NFL: AroundTheLeague (@NFL_ATL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL_ATL/statuses/420699222879395840">January 7, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> http://t.co/xqKl0ciDnN
Heres a plan, he can take schaub with him to Detroit and we' ll take Stafford. I mean if they want Kubes they may as well go all in.
well how do you know AJ would not be averaging 3,ooo yard seasons? good to see Kubiak smiling after that mortar fire he took in the battlefield battlefighting the colts. It's not his fault so many pick 6s would be thrown in the first 6 games. And after the seattle game, everything finally collapsed. I think that's the reason why he is even being interviewed. Usually, after a 2-14 season a coach has to take a season off then be an coordinator.
John Fox landed in Denver a month after being fired for a 2-14 season so there's certainly a very recent precedent. (Not to mention, Andy Reid landed an immediate gig after a 4-12 firing.) Keep in mind: right or wrong, I think there's a much greater appreciation for Kubiak outside of Houston. No one enjoys 2-14 seasons, obviously; but there are a TON of NFL teams that would line up for 10- and 12-wins with postseason victories in back-to-back seasons. It carries a lot of weight.
Happy to see Kubiak smiling...my cousin saw him at a restaurant a few days after he got fired and he told me Kubs looked like he had been beaten.
I think Kubiak would be appreciated more for building a very productive offense on a team that had nothing (besides AJ80) when he got here... no O-line, no QB, no RB, no TE. Very rare for a coach to be able to do much with a team that had even less resources than an expansion team had to improve. (unfortunately, he couldn't get the defense up to speed till 2011). He certainly wouldn't make the Lions worse.
I don't disagree with you exception on the TDs, which I think is a product of the system and Schaub's tendencies, but you also used to argue that Carr wasn't really holding AJ back either back when you were a Carr defender.
If Kubiak is hired, the Lions will get a stand up guy, who players love and respect. Now as a coach, he may not get the same job security that he had here with the Texans. At least the play action will be devastating, with Megatron and Stafford. But Kubiak really needs help on the defensive end of things.
Maybe Kubiak can stop Ndamakong Suh from being the biggest punk scumbag in the NFL. Jim Schwartz LOVED that kind of stuff (being a punk himself), but Kubes wouldn't stand for it.
personally, I think he would thrive if he took and OC role somewhere for a year and focused on updating his antiquated system. After doing so, he'd be able to go back to HC and be what he can be. This job wouldn't give him enough time to reflect and I'd suspect he'd run out the same system w/o any modifications. They'll be good - not great, but will have better success than with previous dipwad, but ultimately Kubes will not have become better. Hope I'm wrong and a change of scenery was enough. Just firmly believe a year as an OC would open his eyes to the changes in the game and give him an edge.
I'm not sure the relevance of a 7-8-year old opinion but... Two Pro Bowls, two seasons with 1,100+ yards and his first 100-catch season all happened during Carr's tenure. AJ's 16-game average was 82/1,037/4, which is pretty doggone good considering it only includes AJ's first four years in the league and, other than a brief blast from Domanick Davis, that offense had absolutely nothing else on it. He absolutely got better, in no small part because of improved QB play, of course - but I think it was more Kubiak's system. Note, the one Carr/Kubiak year (which was long after Carr had mentally gone bye-bye), AJ went 103/1,147/5; the receptions and yards were career highs at the time.