I revisited this 2016 piece which I found somewhat deja vu, but certainly telling. This was essentially Ganguli's farewell to the Texans as she made her exit for The LA TIMES............a piece where she was no longer bound to closely tote the Texans FO line to keep her job.
How strong is Bob McNair's loyalty to general manager Rick Smith?
Jul 29, 2016
Tania GanguliESPN Staff Writer
HOUSTON -- Today's contract extension for
Houston Texans general manager Rick Smith should come as no surprise.
Every time he's had the chance, owner Bob McNair praised Smith. He told me in March that Smith was doing "a fine job." Fans might have grumbled about the general manager at various points in the last decade, but the only person whose opinion truly matters for Smith's job security never did. The blockbuster offseason the Texans had only grew McNair's affection for the job Smith did. Smith got him a quarterback. He completely revamped an offense that needed a lot of work.
This extension, which adds four years to Smith's existing contract, goes through the 2020 season. The question isn't "Why?" That answer has been made clear repeatedly through McNair's confidence in Smith.
The question is this: How far will McNair's loyalty to Smith go, and at what cost to coach Bill O'Brien?
Smith's decade-long run as the Texans' general manager has offered mixed results for the Texans. His rosters helped the Texans make their first playoff appearances. The first time the young franchise ever had a season without a losing record came under Smith. But teams with Smith as the general manager have gone 6-10 twice and 2-14 once. They've had winning records only five times, twice in the last two seasons, and three times they barely managed that feat at 9-7.
I don't think Smith is a bad general manager. He's made several very good personnel decisions that have helped the Texans. He seems to make an effort to meet the demands of the head coaches with whom he works. He's been particularly good in the first round of the draft. He's had some hits and some misses in other rounds. The Texans' lack of success in the later rounds has hurt the bottom of their roster and consequently hurts their special teams -- especially in that catastrophic 2013 draft.
But Gary Kubiak wasn't a bad coach either. We can take that a step further. Gary Kubiak is a good coach, one who won the Super Bowl with the
Denver Broncos in February. At the end of his time with the Texans, he didn't get the benefit of the doubt that McNair gave to Smith.
In 2013, amid the worst season in franchise history, McNair fired Kubiak and retained Smith. McNair had to make a change. But where he could have chosen a complete makeover and assigned equal blame to the men who built and coached that team, he didn't. His logic was the Texans' roster was fine -- it had the right pieces -- it was the handling of that roster that needed to be refreshed. He sat next to Smith on stage after firing Kubiak and said the Texans weren't headed for a significant rebuild.
Except that fairy tale wasn't true.
When McNair hired O'Brien, the roster's deficiencies became abundantly clear and a major overhaul followed.
Starting that offseason and over the next two years, the Texans turned over at quarterback, running back, receiver, tight end, nose tackle, inside linebacker, outside linebacker, defensive end and both safety positions. And even though the roster quickly and dramatically changed, none of that fell on Smith. Amazing, since he is the one who built the prior roster in the first place. The man charged with "fixing" the Texans offensive roster, is the same man who put it together.
In some ways, McNair's patience is admirable. Knee-jerk firings don't help a team grow.
But I wonder about the extent of his patience, the extent of his loyalty to Smith. If this version of the Texans fails, will Smith shoulder the blame? Or will McNair, again, see it as a case of mismanaged talent and blame the coach?