Rick Smith- how he's remade this organization

Certainly, the beginning of the turn around started with the 2006 draft, which should be credited to Kubiak and Casserly. But, wow! What a job, with limited resources, Smith has done since... Here's a list of players on the current roster acquired by Rick Smith:

Adibi-'08 4th rd
DBarber- '08 7th rd
Barwin- '09 2nd rd
Bennett- '07 4th
Bentley- '07 FA (about $1 mil per year)
CBrown- '08 FA (same)
DBrown- '08 1st rd
Bulman- FA/P.S late in 2006
R.Butler- FA/P.S 2007
Caldwell- '09 3rd rd
J. Casey- '09 5th rd
S. Cody- '09 FA (less than $2 mill per)
Cushing- '09 1st
ADavis- '07 FA ($3 mill per)
ZDiles- '07 7th rd
Dressen- FA '07 (less than $1 mil per)
Ferguson- FA '07 (Vet minimum)
Grossman - FA '09 (dirt cheap, 1 yr)
A. Hill - '09 4th
Jamison- '09 UDFA
Jac. Jones- '07 3rd rd
V. Leach- FA late in '06 (dirt cheap)
G. Martinez- FA/PS
McCain- '09 6th rd
Ryan Moats- FA '08 (dirt cheap)
Molden- '09 3rd rd
CMyers- '08 Trade (6th round pick)
Okam- '08 5th rd
Okoye- '07 1st rd
Olovsky- '09 FA ($3 mil per)
Pollard' '09 FA ($ 1 mil)
Quin - '09 4th rd
J. Reeves- '08 FA ($4 mil per)
Deljuan - '08 UDFA
Schaub- '07 Trade (two 2nds)
Slaton- '08 3rd rd
A.Smith- '09 FA ($12 mil signin bonus... 5yrs)
Studdard' '07 6th rd
CWhite- '06 FA/PS
E. Wilson- '08 FA ($2 mil per)
Zgoniga- '09 FA (Vet minimum)
Briesel- '07 UDFA

That's a ton of talent, mostly young, mostly inexpensive, mostly pretty darn good! Excellent job Rick Smith!!!

By the way, we have almost no dead money on the books going forward.

In no way intended to denigrate what Rick Smith has done, but I feel pretty confident that Kubiak is the top guy at the draft. Smith and Kubiak do a great job of working together, it seems, and the street FA acquisitions have been pretty impressive, within the context of what they are.

Bob Mcnair proves with his hires that he's all about winning. Winning
sells more merchandise than any 1 superstar ever could. Les Alexander
of the Rockets is the same way. As long as Drayton Mclane owns the Astros
they'll always be a farm system away from a championship.

By the way, I think our '09 6th Rounder, Brice McCain, should also be bolded.
He comes in ahead of Bennett on our Dime packages.

eriadoc said:

In no way intended to denigrate what Rick Smith has done, but I feel pretty confident that Kubiak is the top guy at the draft. Smith and Kubiak do a great job of working together, it seems, and the street FA acquisitions have been pretty impressive, within the context of what they are.

Click to expand...

I'm not gonna undersell Rick Smith, either. If you remember before he got
here, Kubiak had Mike Sherman in his ear for personnel decisions. When
Sherman left, and Smith was the one with the eye on the talent, things
have gone sky high. What I like about Houston Texans.com, is that
you can go back and watch pressers and highlights all the way back to
I believe the '04 season. Kubiak + Smith have made this team into one
of the deepest in the NFL. I've notice Bob Mcnair has spent top dollar
on facilites, coaches (we have 3 offensive line coaches!,) and whatever
Kubes and Smith tell him they need.

He told our free agents to shut up about their contracts, and deliver on
a winning season. He does NOT seem to be the cheap owner, just one
who demands excellence. There's nothing wrong with that.

DexmanC said:

Bob Mcnair proves with his hires that he's all about winning. Winning
sells more merchandise than any 1 superstar ever could. Les Alexander
of the Rockets is the same way. As long as Drayton Mclane owns the Astros
they'll always be a farm system away from a championship.

By the way, I think our '09 6th Rounder, Brice McCain, should also be bolded.
He comes in ahead of Bennett on our Dime packages.

Click to expand...

I was just highlighting players making significant and positive contributions this right now. It's funny how down I was on the '07 draft... it's looking a lot better now:

Okoye,
JJones
Studdard
Diles
plus, the trade for Schaub and the UDFA of Deljuan and Briesel.

dalemurphy said:

I was just highlighting players making significant and positive contributions this right now. It's funny how down I was on the '07 draft... it's looking a lot better now:

Okoye,
JJones
Studdard
Diles
plus, the trade for Schaub and the UDFA of Deljuan and Briesel.

Click to expand...

I think we were all so spoiled by the '06 draft after so many crappy ones. The '07 draft is how drafts usually work out for teams. Outside of your 1st round picks, most players don't usually get it right away. It just so happens that people had very high expectations for Okoye, when that probably wasn't realistic (which makes it a bad draft pick, IMO, but it's working out now).

I think Smith has done a good job of signing on the relative low dollar players with draft pedigree who are either starters or depth. For me, these are guys that the league as a whole thought had talent and did not workout at the previous spot. At the moment the Texans seem to have done a good job of identifying guys who fit what they do, who have some good physical ability. Because of the numbers game the NFL turns into a team

Grossman 1st
Moats 3rd
Davis 2nd
Butler 3rd
Cody 2nd
Wilson 2nd
Pollard 2nd
C. Brown 3rd round

when looking at that list you also have to give a ton of credit to kubiak and the coaching staff for getting so much with so many young and undervalued players. our home grown veterans are dunta, andre, and pitts (yup, that's all) with pitts being the old man at 30. we dont have 15 years worth of our own talent like pittsburgh or new england, we've coached up basically a team entirely built since the 06 draft. to fill the void, smith has done a heck of a job building the depth of the team and finding guys like zgonina and familiar coaches to make up for that lack of experience in the locker room. he's also, despite us calling for every big name on the market, avoided crippling contracts and trade deals - making the most of our draft picks and appearing to do a ton of research before even making the small moves.

i think this may be the most exciting part about the texans. we're just getting started if we stay the course and are able to keep the core together - especially management and coaching staff. in 5 years when our 06 draft is in their late 20's (and progressively improving during the time), we'll be a matured franchise with home grown veterans, our main group in their prime, and hopefully several more draft picks growing into key roles.

Talent isn't the only thing that's got us on the right track. I believe our
coaching staff, from top to bottom, has to be amongst the best in the
league. We've taken raw players like Jacoby Jones and now Connor Barwin,
and their development has been spectacular. Most teams cant' afford
to get away with this, but the Texans can.

Talent + Coaching has made the Texans what they are. You can truly see
TEACHING from our coaches. There's a video at houstontexans.com, of
Frank Bush coaching his defense during preseason. Players need good
coaching to reach their potential, and I'm glad we've finally got it here.

Rick Smith is doing a great job.

I always thought we got good FO(meaning from Rick and Gary era). It's amazing how Rick and Gary were able to turned around the Texans in a few years.

Go Texans!!!

I think the assistant coaches have good input on the drafts. I don't feel like searching, but didn't Kubiak say that Bush wanted Cushing and Gibbs wanted Brown?

I confess I was premature in judging the wisdom of some of Smiths picks, especially his '07 Draft. The top 2 picks from that Draft, Okoye and Jacobey, have really just started to come into their own in this their third year in the league. And top '08 pick Duane Brown looked like a very dubious selction last year but he's really coming on in his second season.

MightyTExan said:

I think the assistant coaches have good input on the drafts. I don't feel like searching, but didn't Kubiak say that Bush wanted Cushing and Gibbs wanted Brown?

Click to expand...

Isn't that what a head coach is supposed to do? Ask the other coaches what they need to make their group better and then the head coach decides who they get first, then second, etc?

I think they have done a great job of building this team through the draft and not spending big money on FA that don't pan out.

The Texans have never been as good as they are right now. Kubiac and Smith have been doing a great job.

I remember a lot of Rick Smith press
conferences used to begin with "We
want to build thru the draft, and what
I mean by that is..." It
looks like that longterm vision was
what we needed.

ArlingtonTexan said:

I think Smith has done a good job of signing on the relative low dollar players with draft pedigree who are either starters or depth. For me, these are guys that the league as a whole thought had talent and did not workout at the previous spot. At the moment the Texans seem to have done a good job of identifying guys who fit what they do, who have some good physical ability. Because of the numbers game the NFL turns into a team

Grossman 1st
Moats 3rd
Davis 2nd
Butler 3rd
Cody 2nd
Wilson 2nd
Pollard 2nd
C. Brown 3rd round

Click to expand...

Wow! Great post. I forgot Grossman was a 1st. I never knew Moats was a 3rd. Never knew Cody was a 2nd.

That's a solid list of early round talent.

for fair and balanced opinions I request that equal time be given to SheTexan and CloakNNNDagger



and where did TexanMike and 3ToedPete disappear to?