Anybody else encouraged?

I saw the Mcnair press conference and he said something to the affect of understanding this team should be winning by now and he and his assitants are already working on that now.

I don't know about you but I am very encouraged to know our owner wants to put a winning team on the field. Some owners don't care but he does. It wasn't just in his voice it was in his eyes when he said it.

Did anybody else get that feeling?

Count me in the, "little bit discouraged" camp. I thought we needed to sweep it clean and start over. I'm dissapointed he kept Casserly after we were so horrible in FA scouting, the questionable middle draft trades, and our own inability to see what we have and our inability to make good decisions long term securing and keeping talent (Foley, Wright, McCree, Glenn out - Wade, Stevens, Mack, Greenwood, Riley, Clemens, Mitchell in). I'm sure I'll be sipping the Kool-aide soon...but I'll pass on it for now.

I'm a little more than discouraged with the Texans not cleaning house. We need a good GM...and a talent upgrade all over the roster.

Pass the Tums.

No GM is perfect, and last time I checked...games are won on the field by the players and coaches.

Yes, the GM has a big hand in getting those players...but look across the fruited plain and tell me which NFL team has a GM who makes no bad decisions on acquiring/releasing players?

For each bad decision, you can find good ones (DD, Mathis, for example).

Dunta Robinson said what a lot of us here have said, "This personnel is built for a 4-3..."

That's a coaching style and coaching decision, not a GM style and GM decision. But we had a coach who wanted a 3-4. Anybody can see that we have the beef (Walker, Robaire, TJ, Payne) for four down lineman and we have the speed with Babin and Peek, and we have the middle LB smarts in Orr to have a pretty good 4-3....but, alas we had a coach who played a 3-4.

And that's just the defense that is mis-matched. Look at our offense, too. It's just as mismatched with style and personnel as the defense is/was. The three yards and a cloud of dust offensive style is completely opposite of the players we have drafted. We've got young, dynamic players in Carr, DD, AJ, Mathis, etc., and they're stuck in 1940's helmets running up the gut and throwing hitch passes, trying to win close games and getting smacked or losing those games when they ARE close.

So if you ask me, Capers and his 3-4 defense along with his three yards and a cloud of dust offensive style have actually wasted what great talent Casserly did afford to get us. Four years of wasted NFL talent. Gone.

All because of a HC who had the right personnel, but who was too blind to see that his own style needed to change and adapt.

Nice guy. Bad HC for our team's personnel.

I'm with Vinny, I felt that if Capers was to blame and he and Casserly work "closely" together on personnel decisions then Casserly needs to take some of the blame as well. If you put it all the personnel problems on Capers' shoulders then what exactly does Casserly and his scouting staff do? No need for a GM then if a head coach gets a free pass on all the decisions so we might as well hire a GM/Coach. Our talent level is not that good and the is a direct reflection of the GM's job, not the coaches. The coach coaches the players given him, the GM brings in the talent and has final say on all decisions.

I am also encouraged. I think the right decisions were made yesterday, and from what McNair said, I think they were made for the right reasons.

gpshafer_1976 said:

No GM is perfect, and last time I checked...games are won on the field by the players and coaches.

Yes, the GM has a big hand in getting those players...but look across the fruited plain and tell me which NFL team has a GM who makes no bad decisions on acquiring/releasing players?

For each bad decision, you can find good ones (DD, Mathis, for example).

Dunta Robinson said what a lot of us here have said, "This personnel is built for a 4-3..."

That's a coaching style and coaching decision, not a GM style and GM decision. But we had a coach who wanted a 3-4. Anybody can see that we have the beef (Walker, Robaire, TJ, Payne) for four down lineman and we have the speed with Babin and Peek, and we have the middle LB smarts in Orr to have a pretty good 4-3....but, alas we had a coach who played a 3-4.

And that's just the defense that is mis-matched. Look at our offense, too. It's just as mismatched with style and personnel as the defense is/was. The three yards and a cloud of dust offensive style is completely opposite of the players we have drafted. We've got young, dynamic players in Carr, DD, AJ, Mathis, etc., and they're stuck in 1940's helmets running up the gut and throwing hitch passes, trying to win close games and getting smacked or losing those games when they ARE close.

So if you ask me, Capers and his 3-4 defense along with his three yards and a cloud of dust offensive style have actually wasted what great talent Casserly did afford to get us. Four years of wasted NFL talent. Gone.

All because of a HC who had the right personnel, but who was too blind to see that his own style needed to change and adapt.

Nice guy. Bad HC for our team's personnel.

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Incidentally, I agree, but isn't it the GM's job to acquire players that fit the style the head coach uses? It's not as if Capers style changed all that much, so wouldn't a good GM find the players that fit the style instead of acquiring players that didn't fit the style? I agree that Capers was a bad coach for the team, but this was a team effort folks. I'm not sure whether or not Casserly should be fired or not, but he failed in this as well.

gpshafer_1976 said:

Dunta Robinson said what a lot of us here have said, "This personnel is built for a 4-3..."

Click to expand...

And this personell was acquired by whom again?

El Tejano said:

I saw the Mcnair press conference and he said something to the affect of understanding this team should be winning by now and he and his assitants are already working on that now.

I don't know about you but I am very encouraged to know our owner wants to put a winning team on the field. Some owners don't care but he does. It wasn't just in his voice it was in his eyes when he said it.

Did anybody else get that feeling?

Click to expand...

Every owner says they want to win. What do you expect him to say? What discourages me is McNair running off to Denver like a little schoolboy in love and interviewing a candidate who spends most of his time in the skybox instead of on the sidelines. I think McNair is in a panic mode right now, wanting to hire somebody right out of the box to get some inertia going in conjunction with season ticket renewals. When you make decisions in a panic mode, they are usually bad ones.

barzilla said:

Incidentally, I agree, but isn't it the GM's job to acquire players that fit the style the head coach uses? It's not as if Capers style changed all that much, so wouldn't a good GM find the players that fit the style instead of acquiring players that didn't fit the style? I agree that Capers was a bad coach for the team, but this was a team effort folks. I'm not sure whether or not Casserly should be fired or not, but he failed in this as well.

Click to expand...

From what McNair was saying, it sounds like Casserly was going out and getting the players/type of players Capers wanted, but then was changing things around so that the personnel didn't fit.

At some point, if a coach wants to save his job, he has to adapt to the personnel he actually has available to work with.

Porky said:

And this personell was acquired by whom again?

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Many teams want to run a 3-4, but there just aren't that many players out there who are made for a 3-4. And the more teams that jump on the 3-4 bandwagon, the more the talent pool dries up. I remember this being an issue for the first half of the first round of last year's draft as even more teams were trying to switch to a 3-4.

like many others have said, capers tried to adapt the talent into his system, instead of adapting the system around the talent. this probably goes hand in hand with the lack of half-time adjustments, he has ONE plan, and that's it. it also goes hand in hand with 2-14 and the unemployment lline

I was disappointed that we kept Casserly, but I also didn't see anyone else out that that would have been a better option (i.e. Phil Savage from the Browns). Getting rid of Casserly and finding someone better is one thing, getting rid of Casserly just for the sake of getting rid of him and replacing him with someone of equal or less value doesn't appeal to me.

I did sense that McNair wanted to make changes and was committed to producing a quality team/product. I liked it when he said, "I want to speak directly to the fans of the Houston Texans".

Only time will tell, but my eternal optimism tells me we are on the right track.

Tulip said:

Many teams want to run a 3-4, but there just aren't that many players out there who are made for a 3-4. And the more teams that jump on the 3-4 bandwagon, the more the talent pool dries up. I remember this being an issue for the first half of the first round of last year's draft as even more teams were trying to switch to a 3-4.

Click to expand...

I think there is a shortage, but it is compounded by the fact that teams are switching to the 3-4, not the number of teams actually using it. If you are switching to the 3-4, you probably have at least a couple of primary needs in the front seven to facilitate the change. I think that was the big issue last year.

I think Bob is going to have his hand in things more than before which will mean Casserly is going to get over ruled on man decisions.

I agree with Vinny but am probably a bit more discouraged by the decision to keep CC than he is...my big concern is that I don't trust him with handling well the many (perhaps almost unprecedented) variety and complexity of offers that having this year's #1 are going to bring.

We may get offers that include packaging young pro bowl level area of need players with draft choices just to move up to take Bush and I do not trust CC or his scouts to evaluate quickly the talent and value of these options. Contrary to one of CC's famous quotes...I don't think he has better scouts than Mel Kiper does.

Of course, none of this matters if the Texans are just going to give into the media hype pressure and rationalization machine for taking Bush no matter what the offers are...even CC can't screw that up until we get to the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

I am starting to get the feeling that Casserly is better suited to evaluating and picking 4-3 talent. I'd like to know the history of the defenses that he's had in the past.
Maybe he couldn't get a grip on evaluating the talent for the 3-4 and leaned on Capers who is apparently pretty bad at talent evaluation.
Projecting those tweeners sems to require a bit of luck and a little black magic...

I may just have a case of wishful thinking, but maybe Casserly will have better luck picking talent for a 4-3 defense, or even a different style of 3-4.
It has been discussed here that Caper's style of 3-4 is quite a bit different from many others that are successful around the league.
I'm hoping that Cass and Capers were just unable to get on the same page concerning players/system.

Hold on... i need to clean my rose colored glasses...

I am no fan of Casserly, but I do believe he is a good number cruncher. Is it possible that he has lost some of his personell decisions and instead will be kept around as the guy who works on keeping us under the cap? If Casserly returns next year with the same power he has had in the past, then I completely agree with Vinny, but is it possible that he will have a few less responsibilities than he did this year?

TigerV1 said:

I am no fan of Casserly, but I do believe he is a good number cruncher. Is it possible that he has lost some of his personell decisions and instead will be kept around as the guy who works on keeping us under the cap? If Casserly returns next year with the same power he has had in the past, then I completely agree with Vinny, but is it possible that he will have a few less responsibilities than he did this year?

Click to expand...

I read somewhere - on yahoo sports, perhaps - that Reeves was going to be "in charge" of personnel decisions. Of course, that was speculation, but it sounded good to me.

Well at least Bob is doing something about it now, and in a respectful manner...i think he is a great owner, and players would love to play for him...Dom just wasn't the guy to do it with....

Vinny said:

Count me in the, "little bit discouraged" camp. I thought we needed to sweep it clean and start over. I'm dissapointed he kept Casserly after we were so horrible in FA scouting, the questionable middle draft trades, and our own inability to see what we have and our inability to make good decisions long term securing and keeping talent (Foley, Wright, McCree, Glenn out - Wade, Stevens, Mack, Greenwood, Riley, Clemens, Mitchell in). I'm sure I'll be sipping the Kool-aide soon...but I'll pass on it for now.

Click to expand...

That's funny, Vinny. I feel the same way. I guzzled the Koolaid early on and stuck by Casserly & Co. in spite of numerous questionable moves. The only thing that keeps me hopeful now is knowing that McNair is a smart man. (One doesn't get to be a billionaire by accident.) Being a smart man, he can plainly see that there have been some colossal miscalculations in talent evaluation and acquisition. Perhaps McNair is keeping Casserly on board but is no longer going to allow him the latitude to make these colossal miscalculations. A GM's job description is multi-faceted. Perhaps McNair has stripped Casserly of his talent acquisition duties (if not completely, then at least substantially) while still allowing him to maintain his day-to-day control over general operations. Perhaps I am just looking for excuses to guzzle more Koolaid....I guess this is what fans have to do sometimes.

Only one way for the team to go after this year and that's up. If that's called being encouraged then I guess I'm encouraged. Now if Bud lets Jeff go as coach and the Texans hire him I'd be VERY encouraged.

I'm cautously optimistic. Will likely be more/less encouraged when the new HC and staff are hired.

jerek said:

I was with you until you said he was a good number cruncher. This from the guy who overpaid half our roster (most recently, Greenwood)?

I don't know if Cass belongs in our organization period. He has made good deals, and a lot of bad ones too. I don't know where else he would be relegated to if he wasn't making our personnel calls, any other suggestions?

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Hehe, good point. I guess its easy to forget about Greenwood, but to counter that, would we even have Greenwood if Casserly didn't have a say so in personell decisions?

Perhaps it's because I'm a PSL owner that has voiced his opinion to the Texans on a few things this season, but I have been contacted repeatedly by the team to solicit my feedback this season. I am encouraged that McNair genuinely wants to build a winner in this town. I am encouraged that he is learning from his own mistakes. I am encouraged that he brought in Reeves as a consultant, even if it turns out to be a poorly-disguised pre-emptive hiring. I am not necessarily encouraged that he knows how to build a winner, but I am encouraged by the fact that he is not above asking questions and making changes as needed.

As far as Casserly is concerned, I've sort of been on the fence all season with him and I won't change my stripes now. He has brought more talent in here than he gets credit for and should be commended for that, just as he is condemned for the poor picks. The one time I really got down on him was when the article was released about the Buchanon deal. If Casserly had been fired, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, but I'm OK with him getting one more coach, too. To me, he's done two deals that were absolutely unforgiveable - Babin and Buchanon. They weren't unforgiveable in terms of talent acquisition, but rather for the picks he gave up. I still think Babin will turn out to be a good player, especially if we do switch to the 4-3 defense. For the amount given up for him, however, Babin will have to be a perennial Pro-Bowl player to justify that deal. That's not on Babin, as he doesn't have any control over his draft status, but Casserly overpaid. How much of that was Cass and how much was Capers .... who knows?

Anyway, I am encouraged. Call me cautiously optimistic with lots of scenarios to come that can cast me down amongst the pessimists

Vinny said:

Count me in the, "little bit discouraged" camp. I thought we needed to sweep it clean and start over. I'm dissapointed he kept Casserly after we were so horrible in FA scouting, the questionable middle draft trades, and our own inability to see what we have and our inability to make good decisions long term securing and keeping talent (Foley, Wright, McCree, Glenn out - Wade, Stevens, Mack, Greenwood, Riley, Clemens, Mitchell in). I'm sure I'll be sipping the Kool-aide soon...but I'll pass on it for now.

Click to expand...

This is where my mindset is at right now, too.

I can't get the recent revelation by Mr. McNair in a newspaper interview regarding Casserly only watching 4 game tapes on Buchanan out of my head. That, in itself, just leaves me feeling less than confident in his grand strategy abilities (you have to pay attention to little details to build a big picture).

But I'm sure I'll be ready to say "hey Koolaid" come next August.