If it's all about Kubiak's magical magnets-how-do-they-work? system, how do you explain Foster being so good and Slaton sucking so hard? They're both running the same plays behind the same offensive line. I think you're all ****ed in the head. We're ten hours from the ****ing fun park and you want to bail out. Well I'll tell you something. This is no longer an 8-8 season. It's a quest. It's a quest for the playoffs. I'm gonna have fun and you're gonna have fun. We're all gonna have so much ****ing fun we'll need plastic surgery to remove our godamn smiles. You'll be whistling 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of you're assholes! I gotta be crazy! I'm on a pilgrimage to witness a playoff game in Houston. Praise Bill Cower! Holy ****! Spoiler
OH NO! The system that got the Texans to 5-8 might be jettisoned for something different! The horror of it all.
ZBS: this is a scheme a lot tougher for players to develop into than it would be for them to transition out of. It would take the Rockets 2 years to figure out the triangle offense. It would take the Lakers one training camp to ditch it. The only drawback to losing the ZBS is that it will further expose our line for being undersized. The upside is, being taught the ZBS makes the linemen slightly sharper as players going forward. We need a new center either way. It won't cause the team to collapse.
I'm hoping, perhaps clinging to the idea that the bolded parts don't translate to a full-on endorsement for Kubiak. How many times have you heard an owner say "we'll review everything at the end of the year" prior to firing a coach? Let's hope that this is nothing more than Bob giving a pep talk to a team that HAS to be shell shocked right about now. And at the same time, not tipping his hand to the media.
I'm assuming a new staff wouldn't have sat on their asses and failed to sign one notable free agent....that they would have addressed the loss of Dunta with something other than a hope and a prayer.
The owner may be in that camp. I am firmly in the Hire Bill Cowher camp. Let's talk probabilities. A new HC only means another step back with the potential for two steps forward. More likely than not three years down the road, the ever even keeled Mad Max would be calling for his head.
"We're on the right track" is the part that concerns me the most. I'd lay down a $50 wager he doesn't fire Kubiak at this point.....probably $25 that Smith avoids the axe too. If he allows Kubiak to hire his own guys again to replace Bush & Co.....I've had it.
If my day hadn't been bad enough, McNair had to open his mouth. He is now known to me as Uncle Bob to go with Uncle Drayton. Good owners gone wacky!!!
As I mentioned earlier, a new HC would likely not run the ZBS and look for some oversized replacements. A long term move with short term consequences.
History suggests otherwise. Where are all these teams that fire their coaches and replace them and take a step back before improving 3 years down the road? It's just not how it works. Generally, teams either improve immediately or don't improve at all with a new coach. The "step backward" idea simply isn't supported by reality.
Argh. No. NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo. I do not care who coaches the team next year. What I *do* care about is not going 8-8 and missing the playoffs again. In absence of a sure thing that doesn't exist, I believe the best, quickest, safest - whatever you want to call it (I don't care, nor do I feel like being dragged into semantics) - route is to hire from a pool of two guys (Cowher and Dungy) who, together, have coached 23 years and posted exactly five .500 or worse seasons. If Cowher or Dungy are not available, my next-best option is to fire Frank Bush (I obviously think he should be gone, regardless) and hire Marv Lewis to coach the defense. His track record, as a defensive coordinator, is far better (IMO) than the head coaching resumes of Gruden, Fisher, Fox, et al. Concurrently, I fire Rick Smith, who has overseen 4 consecutive underwhelming drafts (he interestingly wasn't here when Kubiak seemed to hit a home run in '06) and has come up with less-than-stellar free agent classes year after year. I don't know front office types well, but I'd look to: NE, Baltimore and Philadelphia for candidates. I think scenario 2 addresses the by-far two biggest concerns I have with the team. And I'm fine leaving Kubiak where he is (I don't think he's *that* bad a head coach) and letting him and Dennison continue to work with the offense, where he's done some impressive things. What doesn’t interest me, at all, is turning to a less-than-successful retread, a Kubiak, Jr., or a high-profile college coach. I want to eliminate as many question marks as possible: Those guys are question marks. No more question marks! I get the vitriol for Kubiak; I’m at a loss, though, why option 2 isn’t viewed as a game changer. If Marv Lewis coming to coach your defense doesn’t fire you up, as a fan, then I have to assume you’ve only been watching football for 2 or 3 years. It represents a significant change and address what is *far and away* the single biggest problem with this team. And the reason, justtxyank, you don't go ahead and fire Kubiak and hire Lewis as your DC anyway is because you shouldn't compromise your new hire like that. A new guy brings in his guys. If you start forcing hires or holdovers on him, you whittle the pool of interested candidates quickly. Cowher is not going to be told who to hire. Neither is Fisher. And I doubt an assistant with any degree of clout who wasn’t desperate for the job would, either. And if he is desperate enough, like Kubiak was – maybe that’s a guy we should reconsider. Kubiak, otoh, you have under your thumb: You're sparing his job, continuing to write his paychecks and putting him on notice
Here's the problem though. You're arguing that no decent coach would let the team dictate his hires. But Kubiak would be so desperate to remain a coach that he would let the team do that. Don't you see a problem here? You want a guy as your head coach that's so bad off that he would let you treat him like crap. How is that a good thing? If he's a good head coach, he shouldn't need to take that crap. The only reason to take that is if he's a pretty crappy head coach who doesn't think he can get another job. And if he can't get hired at any of 31 other teams, why on earth would the Texans want him?
I see your logic and it makes sense, but the problem is then what happens if it's still not enough and you have to get rid of Kubiak next year? you've got this great DC and a new GM, but EVENTUALLY when we bring in a new HC (I firmly believe that we cannot win big with Kubiak at HC, regardless of the structure around him), if we bring in a guy with any pedigree whatsoever, they are going to want their own guys. The odds of a high profile coach being ok with not having a choice of DC (even as good as Marvin Lewis is) and the rest of the staff is slim. I do think what you are saying is likely...a full restructure of the defensive staff at least. Not so sure about Rick Smith being fired. I would add Fisher or Gruden to the list with Dungy and Cowher, and only then if none of those guys want to come here, go the route you are suggesting. Otherwise we could just end up stuck with a pawn at head coach, or even just promoting Marvin Lewis a year later.
I think the hope would be...a high profile Pres/GM running the show, with a top tier D-coord and neutered lameduck Kubiak in 2011, with Kubiak replaced by a top tier O-coord (Josh McDaniels maybe) in Jan 2012. D-Coord gets promoted to HC, but GM retains the big dog status as far as hires and major decisions. If McNair refuses to rip the bandaid next month (I'm very concerned he won't) and leaves Kubiak/Smith in place....we're going to have to wait at least one more year before getting real change. And miss the boat on Cowher. Only way that sinks any lower is if McNair eventually replaces Kubiak with Wade Phillips. Pardon me as I go gargle some bleach.
Then he quits and everyone's happy. I don't understand why everyone wants to fire the hell out of Kubiak but are conversely worried about his feelings getting hurt if we keep him around with less power and control. He was allowed to build his own infrastructure; it has crashed. You don't position this as punishment, per se (though it clearly is) - you sell it as a means of saving his reputation by finally putting together an organization that allows him to thrive. I keep listing the number of coaches who have taken this route. Voluntarily, I assume - but no one think less of Sean Payton. Or Mike McCarthy. Or Mike Tomlin. Or Todd Haley. Having an experienced, successful coordinator is not, by any means, a detriment. You don't skip on first round picks as a means of improving your team; why would you pass on a Marv Lewis to coach your defense?
Then you fire Kubiak, admit failure and start over. But that's 2012; I don't care about 2012. What I care about is 10-6 and making the playoffs in 2011. How do I make that happen? What's the shortest path?
I don't care about his feelings. But I'm confused. If everyone's happy if he quits, why not short-circuit that route and just fire him? My issue is this - he has two choices: accept or don't. He accepts if he thinks he can't get a gig anywhere else. He doesn't accept if he has other options. But that doesn't make sense from the team's perspective - if other teams don't want him, why do the Texans want him so badly that they do this bizarre one year of Kubiak-as-fake-head-coach experiment? I'm confused. You just said that no reasonable coach or top assistant would accept the circumstances you want to put Kubiak on; but now you list a bunch of coaches that did just that? But beyond that, As far as I know, none of those teams had staff forced on them. You said this: And I doubt an assistant with any degree of clout who wasn’t desperate for the job would, either. And if he is desperate enough, like Kubiak was – maybe that’s a guy we should reconsider. My question is simple. If we should reconsider hiring any coach that was desperate enough to accept those terms, why shouldn't we reconsider Kubiak under those terms? Your solution strikes me as a way to keep Kubiak rather than a way to find the best future going forward for the team.
Sadly, the most important person to convince in all of this sounds like he's not even ready to take Ric's approach. "We're on the right track"
