The Future of the Texans
The Houston Texans are at it again. They just cannot seem to find a way to operate in a functional manner.
Deshaun Watson & Nick Caserio | Brett Coomer - Houston Chronicle
In just two short years they went from a playoff team closing in on becoming a Super Bowl contender to a bottom feeder in the midst of a massive roster rebuild. They’ve traded a superstar for peanuts, they lost the face of their franchise, and they have a talented quarterback who refuses to play for them (although the feeling is decently mutual). They are on their third head coach in as many seasons, the front office faces constant questions about Jack Easterby’s role with the team and the roster is weak (although I don’t think it’s as weak as most do). The Texans are in a delicate situation where things will either go really good or really bad in the next season or two. To see where they’re at and where they might be going, I am going to break down the state of the Texans coaching staff, their general manager/front office and the players that they have on the roster.
Coaching Staff
The Texans fired head coach David Culley on January 13th of this year, and nearly a month later, they have their new head coach in Lovie Smith. Now, if the Texans had conducted a normal interview process and Lovie Smith was one of the candidates from the start, I would really like this hire.
Lovie served as the Texans defensive coordinator this past season and although they were statistically still a bottom tier defense, he brought them from forcing the least turnovers in the NFL in 2020 to the 12th most in 2021 which is an impressive feat considering the lack of talent on the roster. He has the respect of the locker room and allows the players to have continuity with the defensive system. Lovie has made it known that he will be calling the defensive plays next year as the head coach. He is known for running a strict Tampa 2 style defense, but towards the end of the year, he started mixing other concepts into the defensive playbook to better fit the players and I am excited to see how his defense changes and adapts going forward. He also promoted Texans QB coach Pep Hamilton to offensive coordinator, which is another exciting move. Hamilton did a great job developing Davis Mills last year and his promotion will allow Davis, and the rest of the offense, to stay in the same system and continue to grow and develop. Hamilton has a lot of respect league wide for developing quarterbacks such as Andrew Luck and Justin Herbert and has experience as an offensive coordinator for the Colts when Luck was there. He had several other opportunities as an offensive coordinator this year and the fact that Lovie Smith was able to convince him to stay in Houston is huge for the Texans.
All of these are good things. The problem with the hiring of Lovie Smith is not the actual hiring of Lovie Smith, it is the process that led us here. The Texans interviewed a handful of candidates, and some of them were legit and respected head coaching candidates, like Brian Flores and Kevin O’Connell. But they also interviewed Josh McCown, a retired NFL quarterback whose only coaching qualifications are as an assistant for his son’s high school team. Josh McCown may end up being a great NFL head coach one day, but to even consider him at this moment is ridiculous. Josh McCown being a candidate for the Texans job with essentially no coaching experience was frustrating and the fact that he made it to the list of the Texans final three candidates put their entire operation into question. The other candidates in their final three were respectable candidates. Brian Flores, who coached a Dolphin’s team with little to no talent and shaky quarterback play to a 24-25 record over three years, and Jonathan Gannon, the defensive coordinator for the Eagles who is regarded as young up and coming coaching candidate who reportedly crushed every head coaching interview that he had this month, are legit options to lead your football team. The Texans got down to a final three of Gannon, Flores and McCown but swerved and chose Lovie Smith at the last second. The Texans could have interviewed Lovie at any time over the past three weeks and they didn’t. Then at the last moment, they interview him and immediately decide to hire him. And this is exactly the problem with the whole Houston Texans organization.
There is no clear plan. At least not with the coaching staff, maybe there is a plan with the players, but when there is dysfunction at the top of the organization, it is bound to seep down to every level below. I am rooting for Lovie Smith and think that he can do a good job, but the process that led to him becoming head coach is concerning, to say the least.
Jack Easterby | WBZ - CBS Boston
Front Office
General Manager Nick Caserio has put himself in a position where he is going to find himself on the hot seat very quickly if any of his moves don’t work. Hiring Lovie Smith at the end of a strange and nonsensical coaching search needs to work. The free agents he signs need to contribute immediately. He must nail the draft class with the Texans having premium draft assets for the first time in years. Oh, and he also must nail the Deshaun Watson trade. Caserio has put himself into a tight spot, but he was in a tight spot last year and he did well, all things considered.
The Texans had no picks until the third round in the 2021 draft and only ended up with five picks overall and Caserio hit on each one of them, in my opinion. Davis Mills was the second-best rookie quarterback in the league last year and that was with a roster and offensive coordinator that were holding him back. Nico Collins was the Texans next pick, and he showed a lot of potential his rookie year. He was battling injury for a good chunk of the season, but he’s a 6-foot 4 wide receiver who runs a 4.43 40-yard dash and he showed some flashes connecting with Davis Mills last season and I think he is poised for a breakout season if he stays healthy. They followed that pick up with tight end Brevin Jordan, who didn’t start getting playing time until late in the year and once he did, his athleticism and playmaking abilities were apparent. Garrett Wallow was their weakest pick of the draft, but he was a fifth-round pick and played well as a special teamer and was decent as a reserve linebacker. And their final pick was Roy Lopez, a defensive tackle who simply swallows blockers and makes plays.
Most people don’t watch the Texans, and rightfully so, so most people only know about Davis Mills, but really the entire 2021 draft class for the Texans was a success and that was with poor draft assets. If Caserio can reach a similar level of success, but with premium picks, this roster can start looking a lot stronger much faster than people think. In terms of free agency, Caserio went a unique route and signed a lot of older players to cheap deals which I believe was a smart way to get better players into the building while navigating a relatively tight salary cap. Most of the players signed short term deals, but a handful of them performed well and should get re-signed to longer contracts with the Texans having a lot more cap space this year (assuming Deshaun Watson is traded). Caserio also showed a willingness to make trades. He traded for Shaq Lawson, Marcus Cannon, and Ryan Finley last offseason and even those trades didn’t really end up working out, he showed that he is going to try everything he can to improve the roster. Caserio has performed well in his one year with the Texans, but he has a looming shadow that will hang over everything he does, Jack Easterby.
If you don’t know who Easterby is, he is a character coach and team chaplain that worked with the Patriots before being brought over to the Texans by former head coach/general manager Bill O’Brien. Easterby outlasted O’Brien and found himself as the interim general manager after O’Brien was fired, despite having no background in scouting or any experience that would lead him to be running a football team. He is rumored to have befriended owner Cal McNair which gives him more power than most people in the building. McNair and Caserio maintain that Easterby no longer has a role on the football side of things and that his current role is more about administrative and logistic operations.
That assertion is called into question with the interviewing of Josh McCown for head coach. When Easterby was interim general manager, he signed Josh McCown as a third string quarterback and interviewed him for the head coaching position before Caserio was hired in January of 2021. As mentioned before, McCown was interviewed twice again this offseason for head coach despite having none of the qualifications to be a head coach. Easterby built a strong relationship with McCown, and it makes the most sense that Easterby was pushing for him. That McCown made it as far as he did into the coaching search this year shows me that Easterby has more power in the organization than Cal McNair and Nick Caserio care to admit. Easterby’s role with the Texans is questionable and will continue to hang over Caserio’s tenure as general manager.
Davis Mills - Yahoo Sports
The Roster
In my opinion, the Texans roster is not as bad as most people think it is. To be very clear, the roster is not good, but it isn’t as terrible as it is made out to be.
Quarterback Davis Mills is going into his second season and has a lot of potential. He has a strong arm, is typically a good decision maker and throws an accurate football. He has a lot of things to improve on, but he showed me enough as a rookie last year to earn the starting job next year. If he can continue to improve and progress through the offseason and next year, the Texans just might have their next quarterback.
The receiving core is okay but could use another playmaker to pair with Brandin Cooks and Nico Collins. The Texans have had offensive line issues for the past few years, and I think they are close to solving those issues. They are set at both tackle positions with Laremy Tunsil on the left and Tytus Howard on the right (that could change with rumors of Tunsil possibly getting traded this offseason, but for right now they are set). Their issues now come from the interior offensive line. Justin Britt did alright as the center, but the guard play was shaky. Signing or drafting an impact player for the interior offensive line should be one of Caserio’s priorities going into this offseason. The running back position is possibly the weakest on the team with Rex Burkhead and David Johnson headlining the group. The Texans absolutely need to find a young running back for next season and someone with playmaking ability, unlike the walking fossils that are Burkhead and Johnson. The defensive side of the ball is weaker than the offensive side of the ball by a considerable margin.
Free agent signings Terrance Mitchell and Desmond King had decent seasons at cornerback, but the Texans need to upgrade their secondary. King is a free agent who Caserio needs to make every effort to re-sign. Safety Justin Reid will almost certainly leave the Texans for a new contract elsewhere which means the Texans are going to need to find two starting caliber safeties this offseason. The linebackers are the strength of the defense. They could use an infusion of youth to the linebacker room, but Christian Kirksey and Kamu Grugier-Hill both had really good seasons and Caserio should look to retain one of them, at the very least. The defensive line has some youth and guys with potential, but they need a consistent pass rusher. Jonathan Grenard was on pace to have a double-digit sack season, but injuries kept him from reaching that goal. With Grenard out, there was no one who could consistently put pressure on the quarterback.
They need to add one or two more pass rushers to pair with Grenard and hopefully another run stuffer to pair with Roy Lopez at defensive tackle. The offense can be shored up with a handful of players and improved play calling from Pep Hamilton taking over that responsibility, Really, the performance of the offense is going to be judged on the performance of Davis Mills and adding an interior lineman, a third receiving option and a running back can make his job a whole lot easier next year. The defense is going to take a lot more work to fix. Getting a cornerback, two safeties, a pass rusher and a run stuffer will help them to be a competent defense, but they still need to find a true impact player on the defensive side of the ball.
Fortunately for the Texans, they have the third pick in the draft this year and could end up with safety Kyle Hamilton or defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaxu. Either of those guys could kick start the Texans defense and make an immediate impact. Although the overall roster isn’t the best, the Texans have some decent players in place and with a couple solid drafts and a couple solid free agent classes, they can be fielding a competitive roster in two years.
Brandin Cooks - Houston Chronicle
