If the Texans finish worse than 6-10, they should fire Casserly. The owner, GM, coaches all said the "right things" about building a foundation and not going for the quick fix and yet what have they done? They have subjected our "franchise QB" to play scared, they have wasted numerous draft choices by taking "reaches" even though there were higher rated players, and they have wasted free agent opportunities by giving out big contracts to mediocre players. If the Texans regress, this will be a big step backwards. They no longer have extra picks, their use of cap space has not been wise, and their offensive line is one of the worst in the league. Many fans on this BBS were quite "surprised" by some of the Texans drafts. Other than hitting on Andre Johnson and Duanta Robinson (2 high cant miss prospects), the Texans have done very little. This is not ex-post facto as many fans, including myself, questioned Casserly's strategy at the time they were made. From Draft Day 2003: From Draft Day 2004:
I'll fire him, but you gotta give me some decent replacement options. Who's out there that knows how to build a team from scratch? Would any of the current GM's want this job over their current one? I mean... you could go ahead and give somebody their first GM job... and they could be like Matt Millen and the Lions for the next 4 years.
Charley has made some horrible decisions. He drafed Gaffney with 1st pick in the 2nd round, drafted Charles Hill in the 3rd Round, Tony Hollings in 2nd round, Seth Wand in the 3rd round, Bennie Joppru in the 2nd round. Only good late picks he made was getting DD and CC Brown. He also gave up 3 picks for Jason Babin, who looks slow and lost. He give up a 2nd and 3rd for Phillip who got torched all last year. The Raiders had horrible defense and they wanted to get rid of him. He spent big bucks on resigning Gary Walker and Seth Payne. Seth Payne is decent but he to slow. Gary Walker is washed up. Morlon Greenwood is a horrible signing. This guy is just a more expensvie Jay Foreman, they can't create turnovers. I doubt Bob McNair fires him since he too nice to fire him.
I still don't get why we didn't draft Jason Witten when was the best TE in the 2003 draft. We only drafted Joppru because Dom and his staff coached his team in the Senior Bowl.
Obviously not Cassie. It would be better to take a chance on someone new then to keep going with someone who is doing a terrible job up to this point. There's more to being a gm than not having high 1st rounders be complete busts. That being said, I don't know if Cassie will even get the axe in the offseason. Might take another year of this crap to accomplish that.
This is the 2003 thread. It was going pretty well until we took Joppru. Looking back it's also pretty funny. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=56069&page=9&pp=30&highlight=joppru Of course when we took Ragone, I had to express myself as well. The only real surprise upside was Drew Henson but big whoop. An entire year of waiting to upgrade a 6th to a 3rd - leverage to get someone like Babin. Genius.
I personally liked it when Casserly rewarded Chester Pitts' poor play with a huge contract extension. He has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster in building this team. Did anyone else notice that we have some scrub named Victor Riley starting for us at LG?
I know the Texans reward their guys to easily. I like DD but he still had 2 years left on his contract, why give him a raise so early. They should have waited at least till next year. They did the same thing with Kaliee Wong. Paying Chester all that money is stupid. He is getting payed the same money as Larry Allen, Benji Olsen, Mike Wahle, and Marco Rivera. He is no where close to their level.
if i remember correctly, we passed on Clinton Portis to take Gaffney. I like Dominick Davis, but this was before he and Hollings were drafted. So in hindsight, we could have taken Portis, and not blown that pick on Hollings. Joppru over Whitten hurt also.
This is one of my favorites: http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/The+Way+We+Hear+It/WWHI/2003/wwhi1803.htm Updated July 11, 2003 RB Tony Hollings, who ripped his right anterior cruciate ligament four games into what started out as a scintillating junior campaign, made this year’s supplemental draft worth watching. And Houston surprised many observers by using a second-round pick to select the promising prospect. Hollings, who was ruled academically ineligible to attend Georgia Tech in his senior year, was averaging a whopping 6.9 yards per carry and three TDs per game before being injured last season. In case you're not familiar with the supplemental draft and how it works, a refresher course seems in order. In effect, there are what amounts to three separate lottery biddings. The first group of bidders consists of the seven teams that registered six or fewer wins this season, each of which has a proportionate number of tokens with which to work (Cincinnati has 32, Detroit 31, Houston 30, Chicago 29 and so on). The second group consists of the 13 teams that did not make the playoffs, while the third group consists of the 12 teams that did make the playoffs, with the Super Bowl champion Bucs — whose RB corps could be significantly weakened due to Michael Pittman’s current legal problems — getting just one token. The highest bidder for each player in the supplemental draft wins that player’s rights, but that team must forfeit a draft pick in the corresponding round of next year’s draft. Selected players have a 72-hour period in which they can pull out of the draft after being selected. Hollings, who was ranked in a tie as the seventh-best college prospect by the National Scouting Combine and the eighth-best by Blesto, had been projected by most experts to go anywhere from the third to the sixth round. Both of the aforementioned scouting services gave Hollings high marks for his big-play potential, initial quickness, speed to get to the corner and relentless work ethic, but his serious injury and relative inexperience — he was a defensive back his first two seasons at Tech — made a lot of teams think twice about drafting him. Notable supplemental draft picks that ended up making the grade in the pros include: Browns QB Bernie Kosar (first round 1985), Cowboys QB Steve Walsh (first round ’89), N.Y. Jets WR Rob Moore (first round ’90), N.Y. Giants QB Dave Brown (first round ’92), Chiefs DE Darren Mickell (second round ’92), Packers OG Mike Wahle (second round ’98) and Chargers DT Jamal Williams (second round ’98).
You guys are talking about Portis and Witten as if they'd duplicate their careers exactly the same if they were on this team. Portis became a star running behind the best offensive line (and best coached offensive line) in the league. Granted, they got a little cocky in their system and have thus since traded him... but their system is FAR superior to the zone blocking scheme the Texans tried to copy from them. Witten also benefits from an amazing line, as he's a TE who doesn't have to block but can actually run out for a catch. The Texans often can't even use a TE as a WR because of the ensuing pass rush. Of course, it would have been nice to have Joppru actually play... but Witten likely isn't a Pro Bowler here either. IMO, the line was never addressed as a weakness or a priority... more like a "we'll fill in the gaps with what we can... but we're still young, and trying to get as much talent as possible." First of all, all teams that are successful on offense always have the line in place first, and then they get the superstars... not vice versa (SD last year actually went the opposite way... and they made the playoffs... so its not impossible, just seldom done that way). Second of all... Casserly has basically wasted all our "extra" picks that we had on his pet projects... so in essence, we're further behind now (talent wise, future prognosis) than we were when we first came into this league.
I forgot about DD in the draft. He was a steal but he's more of a productive fill-in player than a long-term solution.
This is how we built the very good Oilers teams in the 80's. Matthews, Munchak, Steinkuhler (whom we would not have taken if we knew he was on roids). That was the much criticized Ladd Herzog but those guys were cornerstones. Herzog also took Jim Everett and converted him to several outstanding players as well as signing Warren Moon, trading for Drew Hill (7th round pick from the Rams?) and drafting Ernest Givens. We suffered through miserable years but we had talent - just young talent. It took a couple of years before we got rid of Willie Tullis (aka Buchannon reincarnate). I still remember watching the Oilers on TV as a kid when we actually sold out a game (a rare occassion back then) when Tullis got smoked and some blue-gray haired Luv Ya Blue old lady yelled "Get off the field Willie. You stink!" Imagine what would've happened if we took Reggie White over Mike Rozier in the USFL draft. Casserly who was this supposed "genius" has done nothing.
I made this comment in the game thread, but I will add it here they should put all those RBs and QBs that the Texans drafted on the O line... at least that way they will contribute
RIET - You have hit the nail on head. The team put together by the GM and Coached by these coaches have so far failed us. When you put the draft and free agency and managing or own players into perspective we have failed. Why cant they see that Derrick Armstrong should be the #2 receiver? Why cant they see that V.Morency is not a backup kick returner. P.Buchannon has been a big disappointment, I really dont mind that the other team picks on him, thats gonna happen because Dunta has proved himself. I just hate the lack of Heart P.Buchannon shows. The Raiders burnt us on that one. Now I see why he was the fall guy in Oakland. I would put Marcus Coleman back at CB and put someone else at Free Safety. Maybe P.Buchannon would work better there. Corey Bradford is a #4 receiver period. When was the last time anyone seen him catch the ball with his hands? For what he has done the last 3 seasons, you should have given that shot to Reggie Swinton and Sloan Thomas or Kasper. I mean the WR does not have to be great, but he does have to catch the ball when it hits him in his hands. No excuse for that. Dom Capers should have tore him a new one on the side line. I still blame a lack of practice in the preseason. From the preseason I have always thought this to be a 6-10 team. In the long run this will be good for the Texans because I would rather us suffer now then spend the next 10 years as a mediocre team. 8-8 year in and year out will not get it. Houstonians are accustomed to some fine football. What is being put on the field is not it.
Casserly didnt want to be on 13 Sports Sunday. I forget the guys name who host the show, but kudos to him for telling it like it is and not sugar coating anything. This week is gonna be kinda interesting for the Texans.
I love how Bob Allen called out Casserly on both Buchanon and Babin. From the sound of Casserly and McNair it looks like Palmer will get fired tomorrow.
I think they will fire Palmer just to please the fans. But I wonder who they will fire after the Bengals blow us out?? Our O-Line is average, Carr is average, and Capers is below average so its going to be an ugly season.
