Keep Texans Talk Google Ad Free!
Venmo Tip Jar | Paypal Tip Jar
Thanks for your support! 🍺😎👍
All encompassing Rick Smith thread
- Thread starter djohn2oo8
- Start date
WolverineFan
Hall of Fame
You can blame Smith for blowing just about every mid-round pick he's ever had, you can blame him for the Glover Quin debacle, and you can blame him for the lack of depth on this team across the board.
What you cannot blame him for is putting together gameplans. That falls on the coaching staff and the crap they trotted out on offense last night falls on one man and that man is not Rick Smith.
What you cannot blame him for is putting together gameplans. That falls on the coaching staff and the crap they trotted out on offense last night falls on one man and that man is not Rick Smith.
Texansfan69
Noob
So he is not responsible for what's on the field as far as coaches are concerned? If he hired them, he is responsible for their actions and their coaching woes as well as their victories, if they were just killing everyone people would say what a great GM he was for getting this guy. same premise, this guys coaching style isn't so good, lay the blame from the top on down. You looked this car over and kicked the tires before you bought it, so now you own it. As far as the coaches go, you could say they aren't out there executing the plays that are called, they just call them. They don't run them. Just saying.
What gives you the idea that Smith hired OB and co.?
Texansfan69
Noob
What makes you think he didn't? see I can do that too, lol, Who knows what goes on in the front office? I don't, you don't. I have figured out since 2002 that planning winning football does not happen. Way too many draft mistakes, yes they have talent but not NFL proven and that goes for all drafted players. passing on a QB for a OL in the 2cd round sketchy at best. Didn't want to draft Carr because of his name sake? Read that in the paper not made up. I wouldn't care if his name had 11 consonants and 1 vowel, if he had talent and could help the team pull the trigger. This team has more than just a QB problem. The GM has to go period. OB will get one more year unless its like Kubes then he will be here for 5 more years. I agree with most people Change sucks, but then again so does losing. Will changing GM help overnight? No Changing GM is like planting a tree for shade, its going to take a little while to see a difference in what he does compared to the old GM. With only 2 playoff runs in the 9 years since Smith has been at the helm I'd say its time for a change. That 7 years of nothing and like it, 8 years after this one goes down the toilet. So if he hired him or not is really not important, he is the GM the man in charge, responsible for the whole product coaching staff and the team and everything involved.
Agreed, Rick Smith has nothing to do with coaching.
However, last night was definitely a representation of a Rick Smith team when we have far inferior talent than even the backups of a team like the Patriots. This roster has Smith's fingerprints all over it, so while the game plan itself is not on him, the very below talent on the roster does represent his decade tenure as this franchise's top dog.
McNair hired OB. Rick had nothing to do with the search, or the "wooing" it was all Bob & Cal.
Coaching the team extends to teaching them how to execute the game plan.
You're new to this MB, you will learn that Smith has no responsibility in the decade of mostly suck that has been the Texans on the field product. Rightfully so, McNair's keep their yes men around and the blame should be firmly laid at their feet.
This is a very simple issue for me.
Rick Smith has been the GM since 2007, right? During that time, the Texans have only been to the playoffs twice, with a 2-2 record to show for it, and have never reached a conference championship game. Seems to me, with that lack of success, he should be fired. What am I missing?
Rick Smith has been the GM since 2007, right? During that time, the Texans have only been to the playoffs twice, with a 2-2 record to show for it, and have never reached a conference championship game. Seems to me, with that lack of success, he should be fired. What am I missing?
leebigeztx
Keep it Movin!
And i was in the opinion, anyone but clowney. I was cool with bortles at 1 or tb and carr at the bottom. Alot of guys were always talking trenches. Well a qb can make up for alot, but the qb guru penned not alot of difference between savage and the other guys. Wrong!
Good thing Smith got rid of Kubiak and Wade. That solved all our problems. McNair is it clear now??????? I still say not trading down when we had 1.1 will set this franchise back 3-4 years. We will never know though. Smith reminds me of a politician, no accountability. Problem is McNair not doing something about it. Smith is Smith.
macho grande
Waterboy
The bigger issue was Kubiak thinking Schaub was better than a 35 year old Peyton Manning when he was available. Now a damn near 40 year old Peyton gets him to the Superb Owl. McNair should have forced Kubiak's hand like Elway has.
RTP2110
All Pro
Agree, but it's not McNair that should have forced the move, it's Rick Smith. That's what a real GM does. Elway doesn't own the Broncos.
What trade down from 1.1 did they pass up?
TheRealJoker
Hall of Fame
Bills offered a 1st next year to swap spots I believe.
Care to share on source on that?
xtruroyaltyx
Hall of Fame
I agree with that, but the Broncos defense is what drives that team.
More specifically their pass rush/Dline & OLB's and corners.
Of course, I think having Peyton instead of schaub makes a world of difference as well.
PHILLYTEXANFAN
Saddle Up Partner
Blame Rick all you want, Gary and Wade inherited that team. Just a added a few small pieces
frethack
Rookie
And played a part in the decay and aging of our offense before they left (along with RS of course). Set us back years.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T337A using Tapatalk
macho grande
Waterboy
Agreed. Wade had our D lights out also for the first year or two. Not quite as disruptive as denver was today but still.......
All that being said, I have zero faith that Schaub would have won that game today even with that outstanding defensive performance. Peyton scrambled 10 yards for a first down on 3rd down. Imagine that.......Schaub would have simply thrown it to the 4th row and punted. But that was who Kubiak chose to sink with. And he drowned.
RTP2110
All Pro
Isn't that the point though? Kubiak and Phillips are capable of major success when given the talent to succeed. Which is why their success now is an indictment on Smith, he was never able to build that team for them. Kubiak and Wade shouldn't be the ones responsible for building the team, that's Rick's job (in theory anyway, this may shine a bigger spotlight on how the Texans run their organization as a whole moreso than the job Rick is doing).
Bulls on Parade
2017 Astros: Earn It!
Bingo! All Rick Smith has done is waste several second, third and fourth-round picks. I was looking at all of the failed picks in those higher rounds and it was mind-boggling. I felt so bad I nearly cried.
PHILLYTEXANFAN
Saddle Up Partner
So All those picks were 100% Ricks??? Gary never had a say in players drafted, or even FA signings?
Well Gary is in the SB.
If Rick isn't the top issue, he's near the top of the list.
Bulls on Parade
2017 Astros: Earn It!
Of course he consulted with the head coach. All good general managers do. But at the end of the day his job is to acquire as much talent as he can and it's the coach's job to coach. I'm tired of people blaming Kubiak. He's been a hell of a head coach.
The Texans talent level was arguably as good as any in the NFL that year we went 12-4. How many pro bowlers again? We had three on the O-Line alone. At one point we had eight or nine players total (may have been ten actually) who had gone to the pro bowl wearing a Texans uniform and all of them were still on our roster that season.
All were starters of course. But all of those wasted draft picks came back to haunt us. Our depth was taking a hit. And now we're pretty much trying to rebuild our depth at key positions. Which takes a back seat to finding our quarterback and running back of the future.
Bulls on Parade
2017 Astros: Earn It!
Just look at the job John Elway is doing in Denver. Initially, Gary Kubiak was even against playing Peyton Manning. There were rumors that the Broncos were shopping him in a trade not long after Kubiak was named their head coach. But Kubiak found a way to make it work. John Elway is making the ultimate roster decisions.
I really feel like a great general manager does his job and worries solely on acquiring the best possible talent first and foremost. Even if it clashes with their head coach's preference because that general manager can always fire the head coach if the owner is on his side.
dream_team
Hall of Fame
Before you praise Elway... you need to look at the Broncos drafts the past several years. Not a pretty picture. Now I'm not saying Elway is a bad GM. Just that if you're going to say Rick is a bad GM because of his misses in the draft, then Elway must be bad as well?
Really, Paradis/Marshall/Ray/Sylvester Williams/Roby/Wolfe are all recent draft picks.
This doesn't even include badboys like Talib that the Texans would never sign in FA.
Brisco_County
Apples and roadmaps
The decision to re-sign Schaub ultimately belonged to Smith. Smith should have also drafted a QB high in 2012 in order to hedge his bet on Schaub. This isn't convenient hindsight, it's what good GM's do. And when the bet was a loser, he threw Kubiak under the bus in the press.
I very much want Gary and Wade to win a Super Bowl. Not only because they're good coaches and good people, but it's damning proof that the root cause of the 2013 debacle was not entirely resolved.
I very much want Gary and Wade to win a Super Bowl. Not only because they're good coaches and good people, but it's damning proof that the root cause of the 2013 debacle was not entirely resolved.
Bulls on Parade
2017 Astros: Earn It!
Well, great quarterback play can almost make up for a lot of mistakes by a general manager. That's for sure. With Rick Smith we had a ton of talent but just not enough depth like I mentioned earlier.
That 12-4 season we had in 2012, if Schaub hadn't struggled down the stretch of the season (1-3) and wasn't that great in the playoffs (1-1, blown out by Patriots in the divisional round on the road), we'd have probably made it to the Super Bowl. We just missed home field advantage throughout the playoffs and the 1st seed in the AFC.
That 1-3 finish hurt us. Home field could have been big for us with all the talent we had that year. Most disappointing that year was a late-season game against the Vikings in Houston. We lost 23-6 and Schaub was pretty bad that game: 18-for-32 passing. no TDs and only 178 passing yards.
That 12-4 season in 2012 was our best chance to reach a Super Bowl. A couple of those games we lost during that 1-3 finish (which cost us the 1st seed in the AFC Playoffs), we were favored to win by 7.5 points or more on the Vegas line but still lost them.
Good and consistent quarterback play. That's all we really needed. I just don't know why Matt Schaub started to play so poorly at the end of that magical 2012 season. Which then carried over into the playoffs and the 2013 season (when he hit rock bottom during that 2-14 season).
If we had signed Peyton Manning when he was a free agent prior to that 2012 season, no telling what we could have done. I'd argue we'd have gone to the Super Bowl in 2012, 2013 and maybe even now. Gary Kubiak would have never been fired. He'd still be here. We would have been a powerhouse in the AFC for the past four seasons.
Because he had a Lisfranc injury.
CND correctly predicted Schaub's decline in play before Smith signed him to the contract extension.
Bulls on Parade
2017 Astros: Earn It!
No doubt. But it leads me back to why did Rick Smith do what he did? Surely the Texans have medical staff members just as qualified as CND? Who blew the ball on that one?
I almost want to blame Bob McNair because he did an interview with ABC-13 Sports after sports director Bob Allen broke the news about a week before that Peyton Manning had interest in coming to Houston.
And I can quote McNair because I'll never forget what he said, "I'm not surprised Peyton Manning has interest in coming here. We've played him twice a year for so long and we've grown mutual respect for each other. I'm flattered he would like to be here, but Matt Schaub is our guy and we feel we already have a quarterback who can lead us to the Super Bowl. Peyton also has those injury concerns with his neck but if we were to take that risk we would have to get rid of a good quarterback already."
Ever since that interview I've always been a little upset.
Bob McNair could have given the green light to bring in Peyton Manning.
The Denver Broncos are playing in Super Bowl 50 with Gary Kubiak, Wade Phillips, Peyton Manning, Owen Daniels. Oh well. Good one, Bob McNair. We were in position back in 2012 to build a mini dynasty here.
On to 2016 with raised ticket prices. Super Bowl 51 will be played at NRG Stadium at least. It would be nice if the Houston Texans were playing in that game!!!!!
I can forgive Bob McNair if the Carolina Panthers beat the Broncos in Super Bowl 50, and we sign Robert Griffin III and make a run to Super Bowl 51 which will be played in our own stadium. I'll leave the past where it belongs. In the past. I'm about our future now.
Last edited:
dream_team
Hall of Fame
Brandon Marshall was drafted in '06. If you want to go that far back, then 1st round pick Tim Tebow is fair play (lol).
But my point is I don't look at the Broncos draft and say, "Man, Elway is clearly a better drafter than Rick." I just don't. He has his hits & misses just like Rick does. He has his "WTF picks" in Ball & Lattimer, just like Rick has.
Elway actually built this team mostly from FA, that's where he did a good job. But I know when people discuss GMs, they like to use drafting as the biggest measuring stick.
Marshall the LB, not the WR.
I'm a huge believer in using the draft and FA getting major FA's to build the team and have said this for yrs. Many have disagreed with me. The McNair's apparently disagree. The only time they've been major players in FA was after the 2010 6-10 disaster. They brought in JoJo and Manning and had the best 2 seasons infranchise history in 2011-2012.
Hopefuly they see what the Broncos have done and invest in the offense in FA this yr.
Imgaine what an offense with RGIII/LaDarius Green/Lamar Miller would look like in Texans gear.
dream_team
Hall of Fame
The funny thing is I did know you were talking about Marshall the LB. I looked for Marshall in the Broncos draft history, and of course it only hit on Marshall the WR. I didn't know Marshall was actually drafted by the Jags. Another Elway FA acquisition.
I like LaDarius Green, would be a nice pick up for the Texans. I'm ok with bringing RGIII in, but of course, it all comes down to at what cost. I have a feeling a desperate team will overpay for him, which I hope won't be the Texans. And I'm not a Lamar Miller fan.
Well, one thing about all of those FA's, they've got speed.
Marshall
Not pretty, but ALIVE!
Do you REALLY think firing Kubiak and Phillips was a Smith Decision? I'll grant you he performs the duty, but some decisions are not made at the theoretical level, they are made upstairs and carried out by functionaries.
TexansSeminole
Hall of Fame
I don't disagree with you in this instance, but it seems as if this overall thought process is a too oft occurring theme here. What is it exactly that Rick Smith does? Many put personnel decisions on the coaches and staffing decisions on ownership.
You specifically have credited Smith with contract decisions, yet the contract decisions made by this organization over the past 5 years or so have been downright poor.
What does Rick Smith do and more importantly, what does he do well?
Based on the propaganda at Houston Texas website, he does it all. He is...The Godfather.
From what we can gather from the Hard Knocks footage, there appears to be a boardroom vibe about personnel decisions.
Marshall
Not pretty, but ALIVE!
His forte is negotiating serviceable contracts for those persons we acquire. We've bee very good digging ourselves out of the cap hole we dug for ourselves. What we do with it remains to be seen.
But people just don't get consensus management as it's being practiced. Authority is used as a last resort, not as a weapon in constant use.
dream_team
Hall of Fame
In the past 5 seasons, we've had 4 winning seasons, 3 division championships, 2 playoff wins. There aren't many teams in the league that have been this successful in the same time span. Who exactly should the credit go to for building a winning team? Rick? McNair? Kubiak? BOB?
Don't be letting facts get in the way of the love of hyperbole around here... just think how good we could have been if they didn't all suck so bad
Can't speak for your love and hates... you sound kinda kinky if you love watching Hoyer tho
TexansSeminole
Hall of Fame
In the past 5 seasons, the most successful run of this franchise, the Texans are 42-38 in the regular season. In the playoffs, the Texans are 2-3 with a score differential of -23. The two wins were against the Bengals, two games in which Dalton threw 4 interceptions. In the follow up games in 2011 and 2012, Brady and Flacco went for 5 TD passes and 0 INTs. That's the pinnacle of the franchise's success.
In this same time frame, the Texans are 8-2 against a Jaguars club that was 19-61 in the same time span and 8-2 against a Titans club that was 27-53 in the same time span. That's 16-4 against two clubs that were a combined 46-114. The Texans were 15-31 during the past 5 seasons against teams with a .500 or better win percentage.
Don't let facts get in your way.
Bulls on Parade
2017 Astros: Earn It!
I'd give credit to the players too. We had a lot of great players who busted their ass on the field too (including Andre Johnson and Arian Foster, who will likely be gone one off-season after another).
If we had just had a little more consistency from the quarterback position who knows what those seasons of 10-6, 12-4, 2-14, 9-7 and 9-7 could have produced. These past five seasons could have been special for all Houston fans. Our team owner is to blame the most.
We nearly reached the AFC Championship Game during that 10-6 season but T.J. Yates, a rookie, struggled beyond words at Baltimore in the divisional round. We were forced to sign Jeff Garcia and Jake Delhomme after Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart had gotten hurt. A game our defense dominated the Ravens offense. We flat out whooped them around at their house. Our guys on defense were man-handling their offensive line all game long. It was beautiful to watch. I sometimes re-watch that game even though we lost. That was truly a Bulls on Parade defense. Jacoby Jones muffed that punt. One mistake was the difference. We still had chances to win that close game despite all the turnovers by Yates and Jacoby. Just another "what could have been" if we had any consistency at quarterback.
If we had signed Peyton Manning prior to that 2012 season, most specifically (the one decision Bob McNair dropped the ball on), I don't think it's a stretch to assume we'd have reached the Super Bowl at least once or twice over the past four seasons, and Gary Kubiak probably would have never been fired with that type of team success.
And I still say drafting J.J. Watt was so huge in all of this. If that doesn't happen, I'm not sure Rick Smith has a job right now. Because we wouldn't have won that many games in the past five seasons.
But man, we have some players, like J.J. Watt, who play harder than any other player in the entire league. I have to imagine some of that feeds into the rest of the team. Because this team should have been no better than a 6-win team the past two seasons. And they've gone 9-7 both years, even after starting off 1-4 this year (even after being trashed and embarrassed by the Falcons and Dolphins). But we play so hard most games we find a way to win and it's inspiring to watch at times.
Now find us a good quarterback this off-season and I'll show you a Houston Texans team in 2016 that could end up becoming the first team in NFL History to play a Super Bowl game inside their own stadium. The entire world will have their eyes on Houston, Texas next February. Let's make sure we make it to Super Bowl 51.
This takes a team effort. We have a lot of good players who give it all they have. I'm proud of this team. I don't care who the owner is, who the general manager is or even who the head coach is. All we need is a good quarterback to go where we want to go. The team plays hard and is just looking for a real leader at the most important position on the field!!!!!!!
The only reason I still love the Houston Texans and watch every game is because of all the great effort I see in the players, especially J.J. Watt. If not for that great effort, I wouldn't waste my time with how poorly Bob McNair has botched some golden opportunities to put this team in position to compete for some Super Bowls.
If we had just had a little more consistency from the quarterback position who knows what those seasons of 10-6, 12-4, 2-14, 9-7 and 9-7 could have produced. These past five seasons could have been special for all Houston fans. Our team owner is to blame the most.
We nearly reached the AFC Championship Game during that 10-6 season but T.J. Yates, a rookie, struggled beyond words at Baltimore in the divisional round. We were forced to sign Jeff Garcia and Jake Delhomme after Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart had gotten hurt. A game our defense dominated the Ravens offense. We flat out whooped them around at their house. Our guys on defense were man-handling their offensive line all game long. It was beautiful to watch. I sometimes re-watch that game even though we lost. That was truly a Bulls on Parade defense. Jacoby Jones muffed that punt. One mistake was the difference. We still had chances to win that close game despite all the turnovers by Yates and Jacoby. Just another "what could have been" if we had any consistency at quarterback.
If we had signed Peyton Manning prior to that 2012 season, most specifically (the one decision Bob McNair dropped the ball on), I don't think it's a stretch to assume we'd have reached the Super Bowl at least once or twice over the past four seasons, and Gary Kubiak probably would have never been fired with that type of team success.
And I still say drafting J.J. Watt was so huge in all of this. If that doesn't happen, I'm not sure Rick Smith has a job right now. Because we wouldn't have won that many games in the past five seasons.
But man, we have some players, like J.J. Watt, who play harder than any other player in the entire league. I have to imagine some of that feeds into the rest of the team. Because this team should have been no better than a 6-win team the past two seasons. And they've gone 9-7 both years, even after starting off 1-4 this year (even after being trashed and embarrassed by the Falcons and Dolphins). But we play so hard most games we find a way to win and it's inspiring to watch at times.
Now find us a good quarterback this off-season and I'll show you a Houston Texans team in 2016 that could end up becoming the first team in NFL History to play a Super Bowl game inside their own stadium. The entire world will have their eyes on Houston, Texas next February. Let's make sure we make it to Super Bowl 51.
This takes a team effort. We have a lot of good players who give it all they have. I'm proud of this team. I don't care who the owner is, who the general manager is or even who the head coach is. All we need is a good quarterback to go where we want to go. The team plays hard and is just looking for a real leader at the most important position on the field!!!!!!!
The only reason I still love the Houston Texans and watch every game is because of all the great effort I see in the players, especially J.J. Watt. If not for that great effort, I wouldn't waste my time with how poorly Bob McNair has botched some golden opportunities to put this team in position to compete for some Super Bowls.
Last edited:
Marshall
Not pretty, but ALIVE!
Then why ignore the FACTS concerning weak teams other teams face annually. Isolated "FACTS" skew and distort intentionally to promote a desired outcome. I doubt those teams would be worse over this time frame, BUT I also doubt the difference is as dramatic as you either think it is or want others to think it is.
I don't know whether you are a disappointed Texan fan looking in the wrong places or just a malcontent in general and would go wherever there is a place to complain. I suspect the former, but the latter exists and cannot be ruled out. "Cubs" "fans" have to go somewhere when they start winning.
sandman
Brexit Advisor
The Colts are 15-25 against teams with a .500 winning percentage or better in that same time frame.
The Colts are 15-5 against those same two Jags/Tits teams that the Texans went 16-4 against.
The Colts have had Andrew Luck for 75% of those games over the last 5 years. The Texans best QB was Broke Schaub.
The Colts have made the playoffs three times, winning three games. That is the same appearances and one more win than the Texans.
These are facts as well. But we keep getting told that they do things so much better than the Texans, front office to sideline. That they are a successful franchise and the Texans are the laughingstock of the NFL. But the facts...
TexansSeminole
Hall of Fame
The last 5 years of the Colts history is not the best time period of their entire existence, in fact it hardly compares to their previous 5 years. They still made it further than us. 15-25 is better than 15-31, 3 playoff wins is better than 2, and Andrew Luck is better than any QB we got. The Colts clearly do things much better than us, they've been more successful during our entire time as a franchise.