I agree that he'll probably finish 3rd... which is what you disagreed with earlier. As far as the AFC is concerned, which other team is truly not only put together now... but set to go on a run for years? None of them are... New England included. TBH, Kansas City (if they beat the Texans) have a tremendous chance to make and win the SB.
Umm.... Our schedule was harder this year, we had no Foster for most of the year, our line was injured very early resulting in tons of shuffling, and we had 4 different QB's as our starter. I swear all you do is **** on BoB
Then what defines CoY, in your opinion? And who would you pick as CoY? Andy Reid? He took a team facing similar adversities to the Texans (losing the starting RB early, having to dig themselves out a sub .500 record) and got them into a wild card spot. And an extra win / a Denver lost ensures them the AFC West. Ron Rivera? His Panthers team went 15-1 after going 7-9 the year before. Arians? His team was competitive last year, and it's competitive this year. Say what you will about the AFC South being a weak division, but to be able to climb up from 2-5 losing in such ridiculous fashion to a terrible Miami team and go 7-2 the rest of the way to win your division, while starting 4 different QBs (1 of whom was cut, 1 of whom is out for the season) is strong enough to warrant CoY consideration. Reid had a stable QB. Rivera coached in a weak division as well.
By his argument, it was Reid's crappy coaching that had them at 1-5 to begin with... so why should he get consideration?
Mike Zimmer, Ron Rivera, Andy Reid, Gary Kubiak, Jay Gruden, will probably all get votes. O'Brien might not be top 5. Might have been different if he came in as a defense specialist.
What seemed to be the case early on has actually turned around quite nicely: 2014 Jadeveon Clowney - Contributing starter Xavier Su'a-Filo - Contributing starter C. J. Fiedorowicz - Contributing starter Louis Nix III - Trash Tom Savage - TBD Jeoffrey Pagan - Trash Alfred Blue - Contributing starter Jay Prosch - Contributing starter Andre Hal - Contributing starter, leads team in INTs Lonnie Ballentine - Injured 2015 Kevin Johnson - Starter Benardrick McKinney - Starter Jaelen Strong - Much improved Keith Mumphery - TBD Reshard Cliett - TBD Christian Covington - TBD but shown flashes Kenny Hilliard - Trash Don't want to put too much into starting since some might be by default but the Texans have gotten a lot of contributions from a majority of their draft picks. This is a big turn around from what we've seen in the past and would bet that we have more starters from the last 2 drafts than any team in the league.
Yeah pretty much...he also trades or loses too many picks. And they're already talking about trading up again to get a QB. SMH
No doubt, they are getting contributions from those guys...but for example, Strong has been solid in every game he has played or been given an opportunity, going back to the preseason. Maybe Strong didnt practice the right way, but he produced when he was on the field...and should have been given more of an opportunity at the beginning of the season. Rahim Moore is another example of terrible talent evaluation...he either should have not been signed or he should have been yanked much, much earlier in the season. The QB carousel is also partly due to OB...obviously, he cant help injuries that take place, but there have been poor decisions there. There are a pretty healthy number of examples where the talent placement has been subpar...but, he can coach the guys that are on the field.
Strong came into camp out of shape and word was that he wasn't practicing the right way either like you said. I believe the commentators yesterday said that Strong has lost over 30 pounds since camp which is pretty telling. But the fact that he was out of shape and couldn't beat out vets like Shorts and Washington has no bearing on BoB's ability to evaluate talent. Moore has been a bust but you will never hit on every draft pick or FA. Whether that's inability to evaluate talent or just bad fit remains to be seen. Guys like Murray, Hardy, Graham have all been huge busts with their new teams yet are clearly talented and have proven that. Is that an issue with evaluating talent or something else? Sure there are examples of subpar replacement, but all in all, there have been more examples of good draft picks and FA signings the last 2 years than we've seen in the past.
We can't be definitive until many years down the road but ... OBie appears to be drafting better than his predecessor. Besides drafting, OBie appears to be doing a good job in filling out the team depth and special teams: Max Bullough, Brian Peters, Darryl Morris, Kurtis Drummond, Akeem Hunt and backup OL (Chris Clark, Oday Aboushi, Kendall Lamm). The backup OL have taken more snaps than expected and have handled themselves well. OBie should also get credit for Whitney Mercilus's four-year contract extension (and letting Brooks Reed go). Many fans did not approve of the extension at the time. Probably not so much now.
I did put a caveat on it. If you need a good cry, go here Texans Drafts. When I look at a draft, I usually first looked at the 3+ round picks. The first two rounds are heavily scouted and should yield muti-year starters. The lower rounds are where each team's college scouting departments are put to the test. If a team can consistently find starters/contributers in the lower rounds, that team should fare better, year to year.
Agreed. I think both regimes drafted the 1st and 2nd rounds quite well. But the last 2 drafts included some nice gems in the mid-late rounds which were too far and few between previously.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">During 7-2 finish, Texans def ranked first in yds (263), points (12.7), passing yards (185.8) and tied for first with 32 sacks.</p>— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/McClain_on_NFL/status/684107655078531072">January 4, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
And go where? He's had two failed stints as head coach so don't see why anyone would give him another shot at that. He's really the ideal DC if he continues to get these kinds of results. Kind of like Dom Capers in GB. Nobody is going to lure him away to be a head coach. '09 was a homerun draft, but outside of that Kubiak's regime didn't show much outside of the first round. '12 has panned out pretty well for a Kubiak draft but OBs staff gets most of the credit for the development, esp for Mercilus. '11 was garbage outside of Watt, '10 was average at best overall with only Kareem and Tate relevant out of that one. Meanwhile OB has several guys contributing from last years draft and McKinney, Strong, and Covington all look promising as non first round picks.
It really is nice the way that the defense turned things around. RAC's defense was looking really shaky to start the season, but the last 10 games or so, he'd had them playing out of their minds.
It helps when you have as many high draft picks on that side of the ball. Watt, Clowney, Mercilus, Cushing, Joseph, Jackson, Johnson, Wilfork, McKinney. This team was built to win with defense. And they are. The offense is anemic because there is less talent on that side.
