I've seen a lot of great posts about ideas to fix the Texans via scheme and via personnel, so I thought keeping them together in one place would be a good idea. I suppose this can be a pre-cursor to the official offseason thread. You're the coach/GM. (Assume Kubiak, Smith, and Bush are gone) Starting January 3rd, 2011... how do you fix this mess?
Is my name Bill Cowher? From OTA's on, you have to earn your spot. If you don't measure up on the field, I'll cut your ass regardless of where you were drafted or how much money the team has invested in you.
Some of it depends on whether I want to run a 3-4 or not. If I do, I'm likely to make some changes that I wouldn't make otherwise...and likely to use draft picks a bit differently. They need to get VERY serious about free agents to address spots in the secondary. Drafting another young DB (particularly a corner) to address a starting spot, or even a major rotation spot, isn't the answer there. They need experience. Hard for me to address the defense since I don't know the scheme. My guess is...if Cowher is the guy and they go to 3-4, your first pick in the draft will be a big DT. I'd start looking at legit #2 receivers. No, seriously, I would. I'd bet on Foster. You're likely already wasting his career year...but still, there's no reason to believe he isn't the guy going forward at that position. I'd definitely look at drafting an OL SOMEWHERE in the draft. Maybe 3rd round.
In Cowher's last 4 seasons the Steelers were 40-24. In the 4 seasons since he left they have gone 41-21.
1) Trade Gary Kubiak to the Denver Broncos for Champ Bailey 2) Hire Bill Cowher as head coach 3) Sign Richard Seymour (3 year deal), Terrel Owens (1 year deal), and Aubrayo Franklin (2 year deal) 4) Draft the best free safety available in the 1st round, followed by the biggest young nose tackle you can find in the 2nd round. Rounds 3 and 4 should be spent on interior offensive lineman. Round 5 on a kicker, round 6 on a kick returner, and round 7 on tight end . Defense is revamped DE: Antonio Smith NT: Aubrayo Franklin DE: Richard Seymour OLB: Brian Cushing MLB: Demeco Ryans MLB: Daryl Sharpton OLB: Mario Williams CB: Champ Bailey CB: Glover Quin SS: Bernard Pollard FS: 1st round pick
This is a post from another thread I thought was a great example of new scheme and personnel ideas. Eugene Wilson needs to be gone after this season, and giving Kareem some time at FS (depending on how the offseason acquisition and draft goes) might be a worthwhile endeavor. Pollard needs to be kept out of coverage as much as possible, and this would go a long way towards that. IMO this would maximize the skillset of our current personnel and minimize their weaknesses. Sure we'd get burned like toast a few times with so little help for our corners, but the only times this year our DBs were ever able to make plays was in blitz heavy packages. Letting Pollard and Cushing eat QBs (which is what they're best at) for dinner goes a long way towards helping our backfield. The defensive scheme this year was far too conservative and as a result we forced far too few turnovers and came up with a pitiful number of TFLs, which are key to helping our offense dominate the time of possession. I am not a fan of the 3-4 with our current group, I don't think it can work here. But this post shows, IMO, that there are other ways to fix this defense. And also, no more of this "pass to set up the run" crap. Arian Foster is a star. Use him as such. Let him keep you in the game in the first half. Matt is nails in the crunch, so don't force him to throw the ball 30 times in the first half. Daniels is gone, Dreessen and Casey will be fine. Jacoby will never be a 2nd receiver, it is time to realize this. While Kevin Walter is locked up long term, it may be time to invest a first day pick into a Jacoby's replacement. That would be the only offensive position I would look at bolstering during the offseason. Not sure about Winston's contract either, but if possible, I would like to see some healthy competition brought in for him at RT after this horrible year he has had.
Hire Bill Cowher. Let him bring in his own guys, specifically a top-notch offensive coordinator. Cowher brings instant credibility, media hype, and potentially free agents into play that we'd otherwise not even get a whiff of. Let Jacoby and Owen Daniels walk, as crazy as that sounds. Have a competition between Troy Nolan and Kareem Jackson et. all for the Free Safety spot. If you're switching to a 3-4, look for a big, space-eating hog in the first round, and a good middle linebacker in the second round. In free agency, go extremely hard after Larry Fitzgerald, who, by all indications, wants out of Arizona. Also go after any and every decent corner in free agency. I'm content with Glover, Jason Allen, and one to two decent to pretty good corners that Cowher would attract. Safeties, I think would be pretty good with Pollard (I know, I know, his coverage sucks...) and the winner of the competition. Corner, I think would actually be pretty good, depending on who we sign. Linebackers, in our 3-4, would be solid, if we drafted a decent middle linebacker to pair with Demeco. I'm intrigued by the play of Daryl Sharpton, and I think he might make a good weakside linebacker. As far as the D-line goes, I think Mark Anderson, Antonio Smith, Jamison, and possibly Okoye could have defensive end potential. The one intriguing factor, I think is Connor Barwin. Would he be an outside linebacker-type in a 3-4 or a defensive end? As far as tackles, Cody, Earl Mitchell, and potentially, the first round pick could duke that out (with Cody probably being on the outside looking in). For the offense, we'd still be in good shape. Andre, Walter, Fitzgerald (assuming, by some miracle we could sign him), Dickerson, and Anderson could be our five receivers. At tight end, we'd have Dreessen, Casey, et. all. Foster, Tate, and Ward at running back. Vonta Leach is back of course, and Schaub, too. The offensive line needs some fixing, in my opinion, or possibly just better coaching. I'm sure, like someone else mentioned, we'll get a lineman and tight end in the middle rounds. I actually wouldn't be opposed to drafting a lineman in the third or fourth round for depth. Then you have Trindon Holliday as another wildcard. I think the guy has explosive potential as a kick returner because of his size and speed. I just hope he can catch the ball. Also, bring in a new kicker and punter, please.
Amobi Okoye and Shaun Cody are not going to cut it on the interior here. I want our first two picks in this draft to be DB (FS/CB) and DT. Anything else and I will want Smith's head on a platter.
FIRST THING, even before hiring a new coach, is getting a new GM with stones. Someone Uncle Bob can let run the team as needed then have him hire whoever he sees fit should be our coach. We all want Cowher but just look at Mike Smith and John Harbaugh, who knew who they where before they were hired? Next, this might not be a popular move but I would look into trading Mario Williams for players/pick. Nothing against Mario, he is a great player but his impact can be questioned. A new coach/GM can reshape the defense in their image and Mario's value can help makeup for this regimes mistakes. After, I'd focus the entire draft on the defensive side of the ball. Get a SS, DT and CB...NO MORE TIGHT ENDS!!! Mario should get you a pretty high draft picks in the 1st and 2nd rds, a good talent evaluator can do SERIOUS damage with that. In FAgency I'd acquire a number 2 receiver and whatever else is needed for the defense.
I would draft at least 3 more tight ends in the first 4 rounds. Then RB, FB and pick a project corner in the late rounds or sign an undrafted street FA that we can teach up. Some teams look at film and look at combine numbers etc - all I want to know is, is this kid battlin' out there? Do they try their best battlin' other teams? That's the sticking point for me: these kids we draft need to be battlin'. In Free Agency I would sign the biggest named TE on the market. I would then look at the bottom tier guys for back up depth RB. The way I see it we are "almost" there. The defense needs to be healthy and have one to two more years under Bush to get things going. Change now would be LUDICROUS after how far we have come. Do you understand the change in personnel to a 3/4? You must not understand football. The owners do, and they all said we are close. And then there's a lockout looming. These kids can't go out there battlin' with a lockout looming. And ANOTHER thing: these kids are just what they are - KIDS! And they are out there battlin' everyday! They are trying their best battlin' and that's all you can ask for. Asking for anymore battlin' from these kids, I don't know if that's possible because we are BATTLIN' YALL!
Donny, thanks! I also posted this follow-up in that thread that I wanted to share here as well regarding personnel deployment: I would really consider dropping the Mario as a RDE (matched up against Left Tackle) experiment. He just doesn't have that speed burst to give OLTs a bigger problem. The reason Freeny is so effective as a RDE is because he has a speed move, a counter, and a bull rush. If you line up Mario as a LDE going against the right tackle, you better utilize his strength, and even marginalize his weakness. Also, you might help the team out by forcing the opponent to keep their TE or a RB into chip/double Mario. If it's the TE, Mario might be our most effective defender of that position This is where losing Connor Barwin really hurt us during the early part of the year. He would've been the speed to go with Mario's power in passing situations (thank you, Antonio Smith j/k). We really didn't have anyone to take his place until we signed and activated Mark Anderson. He's been a surprise with his ability to collapse the pocket (4 sacks in 8 weeks after our bye week). A fundamental problem with our defensive philosophy upfront (IMO) is the notion that Mario (and Barwin/whomever) would be able to get to Manning and get him off his mark. Manning (and every other QB with any kind of pocket awareness) will feel that edge rush and step up in the pocket and deliver a ball to a semi-covered WR who will surely catch it to move the chains. So we work like heck to put teams into passing situations, pin our ears back and try to get to the QB, and he steps up in the pocket time and time again because there is no pressure there. Heck, even Kerry Collins did this against us yesterday. Until we get a disruptive pass rush from the edge AND up the middle, we're going to continue to get torched in the secondary. I don't care if we line up Champ Bailey, Charles Woodson, and Ed Reed back there.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher is prepared to return to the sideline after a four-year hiatus but he won't take just any job. A source close to Cowher is adamant that the Miami Dolphins, Houston Texans and New York Giants are atop his wish list if any of those teams should make a coaching change after the 2010 season. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5936041
this years safety class is pretty bad. Last years was good with Earl Thomas and Eric Berry. IMO, there is no safety prospect worth being a top 15 pick.
Yeah, it's not a great safety class at all. The only way a starting safety comes out of the first round is if Prince is moved from CB>
hell no, Williams is dumb, slow, has bad hands, and is and all around horrible package. TO, if nothing else competes. His hands arn't great, but they have never been great. He still has the speed and size to stretch the field, create separation, and make plays, something they need from the WR position. And if the team is winning, that will only make him play that much better.
Roy is able to run that quick slant play very, very well. AJ runs the same kind of route, and it works great against man coverage when the defensive front is showing a blitz. The only problem is that he'd be expensive, and that would put a lot of money on one position that isn't even anywhere near the top of the list of issues with the Texans (yes, in spite of the inclusion of one, Jacoby Ford, errr, Jones).
I disagree on both points Williams would not be expensive, he is a 3rd WR at best, he will get very few offers. And WR is a very big need. Jacoby and Walter proved to be almost useless this season. Jones has no hands and Walter has had an incredibly difficult time creating separation. there are just too many plays where no one can get open
