Difference between Kubiak and Capers...

Chris Palmer was way to conservative for David Carr.

 

The first thing I thought when I saw "the difference between Kubiak and Capers" was "about a dozen wins".

 

More than that. David Carr was really really bad. When he went to Carolina, his coach called him out on creating sacks for the opposing defense. Even the lineman who were sacking him said after the game that he gave them up.

The lineman took a lot of heat because Carr couldn't get the ball out and had horrible pocket management.

We should have taken Julias Peppers over a QB from a WAC school.

 

Discount the 2-14 season where the team gave up on him and he should
have been fired after about the 8th game.

Those dozen wins are not as significant.

Rocket River

 

Oh, I agree. DC was a joke of a "franchise quarterback" for sure.

It's just that the first thing I thought of when I saw the question wasn't DC. It was W's.

Sad and pitiful, ain't it? The gold standard for Texans coaches is to be only seven games under .500 nearly five years in.

 

Capers was straddled with a horrible GM/talent evaluator, but I think he was just too narrow-minded as a head coach to win with what he had. The only way he can be successful is a team that is built on defense and ball control, like he had in Carolina. Matt Schaub would have made a huge difference, but the talent was inferior to what we have now across the board.

Kubiak is better at finding and developing talent, at least offensively, but a horrible game manager and play-caller in certain situations. We don't really know how good Capers was in these aspects because he was so conservative that we didn't have as many "crunch-time" plays.

Overall Kubiak is a better HC because of the talent he accumulated, but neither has much potential to be successful because of their flaws.

 

Capers is a better DC than Gary is a OC. He di dmuch more with less talen on the defense.

 

Fine, but Capers managed to be a worse HC, which is what matters. Neither one should be given the keys to run an entire team.

Kubiak took the Capers squad and took it to the next level. Now we need someone to get us over the hump and into the playoffs.

 

It's hard to compare a defensive and offensive-minded head coach. Both were successful as coordinators. Kubiak has had better talent, and I think the best comparison is to look at where the team was during Capers' last year here, and where they went during Kubiak's first year:

We ended 2005 at 2-14. It was a horrible season. It was brought about by many years of horrible drafting. When it comes to drafting, the GM technically makes the top call, but undoubtedly, you have to agree the head coach has a ton of input. Thus, I blame that season on Capers.

Kubiak's first year, he came in, and with much of the same team (granted, he had the number one pick...which Mario didn't have an insanely great season and was injured all year), the Texans went 6-10. They almost went 8-8 (we lost to Buffalo with a few seconds remaining, and of course Vince Young's overtime 40 or so yard run).

All in all, I think Kubiak(/Smith) has been by far the more successful talent evaluator. I think as far as head coaching goes, Kubiak has also been more successful than Capers.

Where Capers failed, in my opinion, was David Carr. I think he was a horrible pick, in general. I know you want a franchise quarterback in your first year, but there weren't any available. As a defensive guy, in hindsight, Capers should have gone with Peppers, in my opinion.



HOWEVER...

Given the team today, I think that with a good offensive coordinator, the Texans would have a better record with Capers than the do currently. I say this because I feel Capers would have this defense playing drastically better, and the offense, with it's immense talent, would still be fine. I think Capers would get far more out of this defense than this regime ever will.

 

Capers didnt stand a chance with Casserly as GM and Carr as his qb. The Texans 2002 draft had to be one of the worst of all time then in 2003 if it wasnt for Dre that class would have been just as bad.

 

Casserly was dead set on picking a QB with that first draft choice in team history. He would have probably picked Joey Harrington if it wasn't Carr and the results would have been pretty much the same.

 

I'm not defending what he did here...but Capers did have the Panthers in the NFC Championship game.

The part that's just crazy to me...how in the world do you give virtually full control to a guy who's never been a head coach before? You let him hire his own GM, for crap's sake.

 

I hated Casserly, but it was McNair's decision to pick a QB with the 1st pick.

He wanted a face for the franchise. You can't get that by drafting Julius Peppers.

 

Kubes is better. Gary is an OC and the O really looks good under him. Capers is a DC and the D sucked under him just as bad as it sucks now.

 

Only real defense you can offer Capers is that Casserly wasn't his pocket GM like Kubiak has with Smith. Smith gets who Kubiak/Bush push for. Capers didn't have that privilege with Casserly and the major blunders of that era (trading up for Babin, trading Glenn and picks for Buchanon, etc) aren't on Capers and hindered what he was able to do.

That said, I still wouldn't want either of them in charge.

 

Babin himself is pretty intriguing...was the first half of his career ruined by Capers and staff?

He seems almost worth that high pick now...

 

I'm so tired of this myth being constantly perpetuated.

Last year we had the worst running game in the NFL. This year's stats are padded because of having to go into hurry-up mode when we inevitably fall behind at halftime due to the defense getting exposed because of all the 1st half 3-and-out's by our much-heralded offense.

The defense is historically bad this year, but don't let that convince you that the offense doesn't suck either.

 

I wouldn't go as far as "suck". But yeah, the soft "hey, we're ahead by 21!" defenses are indeed making them look better than they really are, IMO.