I totally agree with Hillboy. The Texans have not done a thing to show me that they're moving in the right direction. I mean, besides getting a new GM, totally overhauling the coaching staff, drafting a slew of new players, getting rid of David Carr and signing a new QB, they haven't done a THING! Sure, they were 2-14 before they made these changes, but they didn't win the Superbowl last year, so clearly all is lost. I wish the Texans were a Superbowl contender like the Titans. After all, they won 2 more games than we did last year. So what if they lost their best player for the entire year next year. They still have to be considered the favorite. It must be nice.
cnnsi gave the Titans draft a D-. so i guess that organization really knows what they're doing. assuming these Texan haters put a lot weight into draft grades. i mean, how can a team so great b/c they drafted VY do such a horrible job this year? surely, they are SuperBowl bound.
I actually thought the Texans had a ok draft. If they couldn't trade down who else was worth that pick? I can see why they would want to get Mario some help on the D-line. If you spend the #1 pick on any position you want to make it as easy for that player as possible (i.e. getting some receivers for your QB). I don't know much about the other dudes but at least they tried to fill position needs. So says a known Texans hater............
No one. Just engaging in a little bit of hyperbole. I simply don't subscribe to the train of thought that going from 2 wins which is terrible to 6 wins which is equally terrible represents progress. Especially when they blew a chance at two more wins but guys like Ric keep pointing to this as evidence that something real was accomplished last season. IF, and that's only if, they end up going 6-10 again, will that be considered progress as well (because they didn't go 2-14)?
I find your use of sarcasm refreshing. To be honest, the Texans have done a fairly decent job of jettisoning most of the dead wood that was on the roster. Their problem (which many folks here don't want to consider) is that despite everything that's been done so far, they are still firmly stuck in the mud and there's a lot more chopping left to be done. The moves you mentioned may well bear fruit although by that time, we'll probably be talking about a new GM and coaching staff. Again, this is not so much as a dig at Smith & Kubiak because they are merely playing out the hand they've been dealt. I mean have you ever seen a franchise in such sorry shape? No players, no draft picks and no room under the salary cap to add players. All those extra picks, cap space wasted. They really need to get lucky in order to turn this thing around in a year or two but fate is a cruel mistress who does not give out her favors lightly. And again with the Titans! I swear you folks have got VY & Tennessee on the brain! Let it go guys. This isn't about Tennessee, this is about the Texans. Tennessee still has Bud Adams for an owner. Am I the only guy here who remembers how he can F up a franchise? I have absolute confidence that given time, ol' Bottom Line will find a way to screw up his franchise. Guys forget about Tennessee, leave all that stuff to the VYIG fanboys.
Jerome Solomon is reporting today that the Browns called the Texans to deal for that 10th pick because they wanted Brady Quinn. I wonder what folks here would think if the Texans had picked up a 2nd and Cleveland's 2008 first round pick for their no. 10.
wait...first of all...2 wins and 6 wins aren't "equally terrible." not even close. 2-14 and was just miserable. i was miserable down the stretch of the 6-win season because i felt curious george could do a better job QBing the team than backup Carr. but there was improvement in other areas, for sure. they are putting the pieces together. i think they will be more competitive than they were last year, though that doesn't necesssarily translate into more wins...depends on strength of schedule. the texans are moving in the right direction. it's easy to say there was nowhere to go but up...but that isn't true, either....because they could have stayed right where they were. but they didn't.
uhm... well, yeah - it sort of doesn't make any sense without that context... but, thanks... then what in h-e-double hockey sticks do you consider "progress"? they improved in every single measurable category as a team last year (save for rushing). they jettisoned a failed general manager and coach. they added as many as 6 players to their roster via the draft. they started the process of cleaning out dead weight on a roster that was almost universally bereft of talent. and that doesn't represent "progress"? really? really? so the statistical improvements were - what? figments of our imagination? and FYI - blowing chances to win two additional games strengthens our position, and weakens yours further; i'm not even sure why you brought it up. within a single calendar year, they went from 2 wins to having a chance at 8... and somehow we're the ones who are delusional about their "progress"? no, IF they go 6-10 next year, it will be considered a disappointment (barring something catastrophic being the cause, such as schaub getting hurt and misses significant time). you're being contrarian for the sake of contrary, and, frankly - it's boring. they were a better team in every facet last year than they had been the year prior. and in some of their still-deficient areas, they made significant additions to the roster this winter. if you can't at least recognize the progress they've made, why do bother keeping up with the team? it's obvious nothing will satisfy you - you're destined to be perpetually disappointed.
That's pathetic. Six wins is an improvement over two wins. An noteworthy improvement. Perhaps you have forgotten just how embarrasingly inept every reaching corner of this team had to be in 2005 to find a way to lose fourteen games. But go ahead, paint an honest recognition of that improvement as "get out the Lombardi trophy, baby!", because often when one resorts to hyperbole it's a sign he has no effective logical argumentation left. In other words, I didn't say they were a Superbowl contender, I said they improved. And they did. If you seriously wanted them to become a Superbowl contender the instant Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak took the reigns of a steaming pile of crap that lost fourteen games, then you set yourself up for some serious disappointment, because that's a pretty stupid thing to expect. I expected five or six wins last year, and I got them. For a bonus, we even got to see them beat the Colts. It's your prerogative to b**** and moan if you like, and it's mine to point out how stupid that is, and then listen to you say I "buy the company line." You never even heard me describe his play that way. David Carr won me over last season--he won me over to the, "this guy needs a fresh start somewhere else" crowd. How do I feel about him, though? I've never met the guy, so I don't know! By all accounts I've heard, he's a tremendous guy, but that's all hearsay.
Six wins is equally terrible? Equal to two wins?? Let's put some numbers to this "logic", shall we? .375 is equally as bad as .125. OK. Losing ten games is equally as bad as losing fourteen games. Check. That's outrageously funny. Losing ten games is certainly bad, but it's not the train wreck that losing fourteen games is. You may be the only person I've ever heard--ever--try to make that argument. You don't have to "subscribe to the train of thought" if you don't want to, but let me remind of a little something we studied back in 1st grade: 6 > 2 ...and, although this makes it sound like much more than it was: 2 * 3 = 6 That's even funnier. 6 = 6 ...so, (of course), that's not progress. This team needs to win 8 or 9 games this season.
This is the most sensible thing you've said in this entire thread, except for the "firmly stuck in the mud" part. If one is firmly stuck, there would be no movement whatsoever, yet the Texans did indeed move--from 2 wins to 6. But your appraisal of the rest of the situation is fair. And that appraisal of the massive crap these guys inherited makes it to me even more impressive they were able to win 6 games, and able to convince folks like Ahman Green and Matt Schaub to even come here.
well, i doubt schaub required much of a sell-job; they handed him $48M and the starting QB position... funny, btw, how that's escaped criticism, or, really mention - yet carr being handed nearly the same deal and parameters came under constant fire. sorry; i sidebar'ed with myself there...
If Schaub sucks for 3 or 4 years and gets an extension for it, I think he'll come under similar fire. I don't recall anyone complaining about Carr's deal until the extension this past season.
so no one complained that the team never brought in a worthy, competent back-up and made carr earn it? no one thought he was beaten out by rosenfels last summer but handed the job anyway?... schaub has been given the starting job with, frankly, fewer skins on the wall than carr had as a rookie. and is being paid roughly the same amount. as risky as the carr extension was last year, the schaub deal raises the stakes ten-fold beyond that... and no one is concerned he has no competition? no hurdle? no incentive to earn it?
Umm, I said there weren't major complaints until after he was given the extension - you're talking about this past season. Going into his 4th year, people thought he was OK. It was after his 4th year where he sucked and then got an extension that people thought the organization was stupid for not trying anything else or giving anyone else a chance. No, because people are excited about what they think Schaub is. Here, you're paying for potential. With Carr, you were paying for a known lack of performance, and by all accounts, most people think extremely highly of Schaub throughout the league. People aren't going to complain unless he falters, just like they didn't about Carr until he faltered.
We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one because I don't make a distinction between two wins and six wins. To me, they are equally bad. And I do agree with you about them being a bit more competative although I don't expect their record to improve much from last year. Well, nothing happens in a vaccuum but I see your point here (and a good point it is). However, based on my personal experience, bad teams tend to stay bad unless there is a change in the underlying factors that contribute to their being a bad team. And bad teams tend to stay bad for a long time as they wander through the wilderness of mediocrity. The Texans are a bad team and a bad organization and have been so for years. I fully expect them to continue to be bad for the foreseeable future. I'm simply not ready to declare that the worse is over for them just yet especially after only one year under Regime #2. So far, I kinda like what I'm hearing from GM Rick Smith particularly on cleaning up their salary cap mess but I still have reservations about Kubiak. I'll admit that these stem from the way he handled the Carr decision and the taking of Mario Williams so high in the 2006 draft (and thereby passing on 3 good QB choices). I'm not sure if this was an honest mistake on his part or one born of hubris so I'll need to see a whole lot more from them especially the on field results of their player evaluations and acquisitions before I can begin to be confident that this franchise is indeed moving in the right direction. I really believe that a lot of what is passing for optimism about the Texans is based on little more than faith and I have no quarrel with those folks. It's just that based upon my personal experience in matters such as these, I have become a man of little faith.
