Thanks in advance.
P.S. I grew up in Cbus and I am a rabid Ohio State fan but I never cared for the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals or any other NFL team. But now I'm really looking forward to watching CJ develop and, hopefully, lead Houston to great things. I'll definitely be following and watching!
OK. Get some snacks and take a seat.
After our team with Kubiak fell apart in 2013, we hired a new coach: Bill O'Brien. He came in and put in new systems and new approaches. At that point, we had the greatest defensive player in the NFL and one of the great running backs. But we needed a QB.
We went 9-7 in O'Brien's first three years, getting to the playoffs twice (and even winning a game) even though we had crap quarterbacks.
And then we moved up, trading a king's ransom, and drafted DeShaun Watson (a couple of picks after Mahones.) We went 4-12 Watson's rookie season. He looked amazing, BUT he tore his ACL and all the hope went out of the team.
When Watson came back, we actually had signs of life. We had two seasons with 10+ wins but there were shenanigans going on in the front office. There were power plays. There were people getting canned. There were accusations of tampering with other teams FO staff. This ended up with O'Brien getting power and then running the team into the ground, making horrible trades, handing out insane contracts. Over a span of 4 years, we had 1 first round pick and 2 second round picks because of O'Brien's disastrous trades.
And then he was fired, but we didn't clean house. Some of the cancers (Easterby) that had come along with O'Brien remained. The decisions being made were... as though there wasn't anyone in the building who understood how things work. We hired a coach (Culley) that had everyone scratching their heads, then we fired him after a year. Then we hired Lovie Smith in an absolute disaster of a hiring search.
Near the end of last season, Easterby was removed, Lovie Smith was fired (after a single season), and it now appears that Caserio has asserted control (possibly.)
Caserio's recent moves look good (although there are people who will debate that). Hiring Demeco Ryans is generally considered to be a good move. Personally, I like the way he handled the draft and I have hopes for these players.
So that's where we are now.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
EDIT: And somehow I neglected to mention the whole Deshaun Watson fiasco and how that tore the fanbase apart.