Someone else has already said it but in the NFL (as opposed to MLB and NBA) can you quickly build a contender with the draft and free agents and not wait for awhile for the team to start winning. If the Texans draft smart and pick up the right type of free agents they could be contending in the next few years. Some people act like the Texans will be forever mired in mediocrity just because of last years 1rst pick gaffe. It's not the end of the world as long as you don't repeat the same mistakes. VY, yeah it was apparent he's one of those special players, but in the NFL theres so many avenues to build a team (Tom Brady a late round pick) and be contender in a short time. Pissing away first round picks with nothing to show for them is not a good trend though, but with the new regime hopefully that is in the past. My point is that you can grind your teeth away at VY not being here, or you can optimistically look at the Texans trying to move forward from a disastrous birth with the new regime, which they seem to be doing. In fact I think they can be a .500 team this year, maybe that's on the optimistic side but whatever. Sheesh, now we got GARM talk seeping into football, as we got some serious VOFs amongst us.
Actually, I think its the exact opposite. in the NBA a team can go from the basement to the playoffs with one player (Yao for the Rox, LeBron for the Cavs, Amare for the suns) in the NFL only takes a slightly shorter amount of time than the MLB I would say to build a contender.. if not the exact same time table. And the success you see in the NFL can be very fleeting, whereas in the MLB a team that is good is usually good for a number of years consecutively.
Yes and don't forget who the offensive coordinator is over at Tennessee. I find it instructive that the Titans can take a rookie QB and start him in game 3 with a game plan that allowed him to do the same types of things he had been doing in college without getting him killed. At the same time, over here, the all the Texans could do was to continually shrink their offense downward to match David Carr's level of play. Last year, VY won games with his athleticism. Just wait until he gains some more NFL experience as he looks to be the real deal: he has the physical tools, the size and the attitude to succeed. Most importantly, there is no Casserly & Capers at Tennessee.
Sorry to disagree here but that wasn't leadership - that was him finally (and publicly) admitting reality. The time for him to step up and show leadership was back when Casserly & Capers were wrecking this franchise so his time for showing leadership has long passed. As I have posted before, McNair did many things right in bringing pro football back to Houston and for that I salute him. He played the NFL League Office franchise game perfectly (remember, the league wanted to put this team in Los Angeles). But he absolutely failed to learn the lessons of history because all that what he's managed to deliver thus far is a rehash of the Houston Oiler experience. Not the great "Luv Ya Blue" experience but the bad old Houston Oiler experience that I grew up with. Small wonder, you see some many post here that they really want to embrace this team but just can't do so. The major blame for all of this has to reside with McNair for being a football idiot. Let's just hope that he's learned his lesson.
This is only because so many teams make the playoffs in the NBA compared to the NFL and MLB (16 out of 30 compared to 12 out of 32, or 8 out of 30). The contending teams in the NBA the last 3 years have been Detroit and Miami in the East, and San Antonio, Dallas, and Phoenix in the West. This year, Houston may join them. LA was there instead of Phoenix for 6 or 7 years before Shaq was traded. But otherwise, there's been basically no movement in a while. Throughout the 90's, it was Chicago, NY, Houston, Seattle, Utah, and Phoenix rotating around. The fringe playoff teams come and go, but the elite ones pretty much stay the same. This is because it's a superstar dominated league. So if you have Shaq for ten years, you're gonna be really good no matter what the other pieces are. The other leagues are much more team-oriented - you have to be good at far more positions, so locking in one guy doesn't make your team a success. I'd agree that NFL success is very fleeting, but the flipside to that is that new teams are popping up all the time to take their place. The only really consistently good teams in the NFL have been the Colts and Patriots. But the number of teams that go from terrible to good in a period of two years is amazing. Pittsburgh went from #11 pick or so to 15-1 in a year. New Orleans and the Jets went from top 4 picks to the playoffs this year. Carolina was something like 2-14 two years before they made the Superbowl. Chicago had the #4 pick two years before their Superbowl run, etc. So much of football is chemistry and how all the pieces fit. That makes it a much more volatile thing - but if you can collapse quickly, it also means you can get good quickly.
Part of leadership is being able to accept failure and mistakes and learning from them. And being able to focus on the present instead of simply always regretting (or compounding) a previous mistake.
Special franchise players in the NBA can impact a team more significantly, that's why Portland is still living in infamy for passing up Jordan. That's not taking account the global marketing and cultural impact Jordan had that the Blazers missed out on, which I can safely say that VY will never attain that status, no individual NFL player will ever touch his global impact. In the NFL, you have 7 rounds in the draft to plug holes in your team. One pick is not going to make or break the future of an NFL team, if Mario becomes just an average player, we still can build a winner in spite of him. However if our drafts keep sucking then yeah that's the future of the team right there, and supposedly we got rid of the problem (Cass). MLB, yeah, mainly due to free agents, and a team can go into the cellar real quick then back up again (Florida Marlins). But it seems like only big market teams are the perennial pennant chasers.
FWIW... I will never be a Cows fan... that was just for emphasis. I'll root for the Texans, don't worry. I will reserve any more judgment on Schaub until he starts more than 2 games, or plays in 6 games for the Texans.
well, if he would have complained that in the Pro Bowl he was frozen out... yeah I know, I was really reaching with the MJ > VY statement....
There is absolutely nothing the Texans can do in that respect (make the VY fans feel better) short of working a trade with Tennessee for VY and they'll be flinging snowballs in hell before that happens. For all intents and purposes, this organization has to effectively consider these VYIG fans as lost to the Texans. Time to turn the page, learn from their mistakes and try to climb out of the huge football & PR hole they have dug for themselves.
There will be folks out there that will never get over this. I concede that they do have a legitimate right to be pissed off at the Texans organization. It looks like the 2006 draft will be a watershed moment for this franchise and will harped about for years to come. Expect that every time Schaub stumbles, this will be brought up by the talking heads in the media. For example, up here in Dallas, there is much chuckling about those "sad-sack" Texans. Yes today they are a joke and a punchline now but hopefully, Kubiak & Co. will get this thing turned around so that the laughter and the jokes will eventually stop.
A year after the New England Patriots joined the NFL, they moved to Foxborough, Massachusetts. With the first pick in the draft they made Jim Plunkett the new face of their franchise. In their first regular season game they beat the heavily favored Raiders. That would be one of their only highlights for the next five losing seasons (the most wins they had in one season during that span was seven). Plunkett was traded after his fifth season, and the following year the Patriots went 11-3, and made the NFL playoffs for the first time.
What if, what if, what if... What if Vince Young doesn't win 12 Superbowls by himself, like you seem to think he will? I know it sounds crazy... What if Mario turns out to be the next Lawrence Taylor (minus the coke habit) and Vince turns out to be the next Mike Vick? What if the next Joe Montana is a senior in high school right now and the Texans draft him in 3 years and go on to win 12 Superbowls, while Vince breaks down in year 3 and never wins anything? We can play this game all day long.
Vick's first season starting (only started two games in 2001) 2002: 15 starts - 231 comp., 54%, 2936 yards, 16 pass touchdowns, eight interceptions, and 81.6 rating. 777 rushing yards and 8 rushing touchdowns. 9-6-1 record first round playoff win Young's first season 2006: 13 starts - 184 comp., 51.5%, 2199 yards, 12 pass touchdowns, 13 interceptions, and 66.7 rating. 552 rushing yards and 7 rushing touchdowns.
Vince Young failing is unpossible. if Dakota said it, it must be true. he's never been wrong about a player.
LOL - whether I am right or wrong about V-Span is yet to be proven. I get more right than wrong.....I hope that trend continues this week in Vegas for me. DD
I hope that the new QB plays well and that the team has some success. The franchise is still making some dumb decisions, so hopefully that will stop. I'm still shocked at how folks downplay McNair's admitted mistake (passing on 3 high QB prospects, one of which was a hometown kid, to keep your underperforming QB and pay him MORE money, only to release him 1 yr later and arguably overpay for a back-up QB that was outproduced by every QB that you passed on last year). If another team did that we would be quick to label them idiots..... But at least they said sorry.....
