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Nick Caserio - New GM
- Thread starter gwallaia
- Start date
He's running the show, he's going to succeed or fail doing things his way. As it should have been all along. After seeing Lovie's clock mismanagement in Chicago (My Bears fan friend used to complain like we did about BOB) I'm hoping Caserio stays on the headset. People who complain about this are just looking for something to complain about. The Texans have been one the worst run franchises for the last 2 decades. I'm glad things are being done differently.
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Texian
Hall of Fame
I should add this is a position the File Clerk is much more comfortable in. When Game Boy went to Lovie to rescue his HC search and put an end to the circus it had become, Lovie agreed with some very strong conditions and some demands that were non-negotiable. One of those conditions was putting a collar on the File Clerk with a very short lease. Another being Lovie would've full command and control of the Houston Texans. If there is any doubt, watch going forward, the File Clerk will be less of a public spokesperson for the Texans. Lovie now the spokesperson for the Texans. Game Boy couldn't agree fast enough. The File Clerk is happy, he knew he was in over his head and he's still banking $6MM a year. All IMHO.
I’ve been a proponent of Caserio on the headset, believing the GM accepted a subordinate role on gameday, like Belichick’s right hand did in New England. Embodying a team 1st, all you can do attitude.
but Lovie was on the headset last season. I can’t imagine him having a problem with Nick on the headset if Nick had that same attitude.
Texian
Hall of Fame
This is a very different sounding Nick Caserio, much more conciliatory and an absence of his previous narcissism: GM Nick Caserio on the coaching staff, NFL Combine and the 2022 roster | Houston Texans - YouTube
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Texian
Hall of Fame
Lovie has said that Nick will not be on the head set during the game. Lovie also said that Nick would be available to help them out in other ways he might be needed (this might be code for sitting in the owner's box with Game Boy).
Lovie probably wont be employed down on Kirby after the next 2 yrs.
If you're right Calhoun hired Caserio to run the football opps as he sees fit. Now he's not letting him do the job he was hired to do. What could ever go wrong? When is the last time I typed that?
Dejaview
All Pro
Well Lovie was the asst. HC last year.
Texian
Hall of Fame
After over a year on the job and going thru 2 HC hiring cycles, both being public clown shows, even the Game Boy knew the File Clerk is not who he thought he was. Therefore, Game Boy had to hire Lovie to end the public humiliation and embarrassment and why Cal had to change Caserio's job descriptions. Game Boy also didn't want to get stuck with another Culley like GTD contract for another rookie HC and still have to suffer thru another silly Culley like season.
The Lovie hiring came with some strong guarantees/promises and non-negotiable demands from Lovie in order for Lovie to agree to take the HC job. Game Boy couldn't agree fast enough in order to put an end to the annual circus show the Texans had become. So Cal had no other choice but to immediately turn over all operations of the Houston Texans to his new head coach, Lovie Smith. I would not be surprised if we were to learn that some senior NFL personnel got to Janice and advised her to hire Lovie in order to end the many Texans embarrassments and that would also bring respectability to the Houston Texans.
The File Clerk has been relegated to working with Lovie and his staff to set the FA and draft board tables. The File Clerk is still responsible for operating the draft war room, orchestrating any trades to move up and down. Make no mistake, it will be Lovie and his staff who will be doing the shopping for the groceries. I expect that Easterby will also be less visible.
I imagine Lovie was told that first and foremost they expect him to bring back respectability to the Texans, be a good fiduciary and fiscally responsible. $60MM in Dead Money is not acceptable, clean it up and to not let it happen again. Caserio and Easterby will be gone after 2023 because that is when their GTD contracts become a pill the McNair's can swallow. The Nick Caserio Kool Aid has been discontinued.
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TLTR, but if true this is why the Calhoun's have sucked and always will suck with this type of mgmt style.
But after reading the last sentence, what you've said is Calhoun is meddling just like his daddy did, money means more than winning championships. Nothing has changed down on Kirby.
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SnakeEyes
Under NRG
Interesting stuff, Lovie isn't on board with it
houston.sportsmap.com
Lovie Smith appears to have drawn a line in the sand with Texans, Caserio
Texans head coach Lovie Smith joined the Rich Eisen Show and shared his thoughts on how things should operate...
houston.sportsmap.com
Interesting stuff, Lovie isn't on board with it
Lovie Smith appears to have drawn a line in the sand with Texans, Caserio
Texans head coach Lovie Smith joined the Rich Eisen Show and shared his thoughts on how things should operate...
Another case of the GM/HC not being on the same page.
More of the same old same old.
Thanks Calhoun
Texian
Hall of Fame
Pretty much. Instead of Bob telling Kubiak that Wade would now be his DC, it was Cal who told Caserio that Lovie was the new HC and would also be in charge of all of X and Os and player personnel.
beerlover
Hall of Fame
per Jack, lol
cuppacoffee
Resident Grouch
So JJ deserved a shot at the superbowl? Team obliged....... then JJ dumped on the team. Ingrate in my book.
Agree with the rest of the post.
SnakeEyes
Under NRG
From my understanding, Nick may have even been calling some plays. Offering ideas is fine, but if you are flat out calling plays that's a bit over the top.
Nick hired a real head coach this time. He'd better treat him like it now, too. Firing two coaches in two seasons is a terrible look for a GM, not that the McNairs would actually notice.
I'm liking what I hear from Lovie more and more. He's not here to play their little front office games. In his mind, he's here to build a football team and win games. I don't know how that will ultimately translate, but I like it so far and look forward to seeing him on the sidelines.
I'm liking what I hear from Lovie more and more. He's not here to play their little front office games. In his mind, he's here to build a football team and win games. I don't know how that will ultimately translate, but I like it so far and look forward to seeing him on the sidelines.
That's utterly absurd and asinine. Fans are looking at an unorthodox method for an on-going dysfunctional franchise and fairly criticizing it. Nick hired a completely unqualified position coach and made him HC like it's Trading Places. He hired a guy that probably couldn't manage the clock on a game of Madden. It was ridiculous to watch. Culley was clearly overwhelmed and clueless.
Nick needs to learn to stay in his lane. And it sounds like he hired a head coach that is not going to allow him in his coaching lane.
This just confirms to me that Lovie is not going to allow some hack front office executive to influence him, as well, and I'm not talking about Caserio. These are good signs.
What it confirms to me is the the FO/HC aren't on the same page.
SOS as the past 2 decades.
Thanks Calhoun
Where do you get that?
Where did you get this info from?
I haven't heard anything like this and I keep up with the Texans org pretty closely. From what I've read and heard is Caserio was letting Culley know about things like down and distance and from which hash the play would be run from, in addition to things like timeouts and whether to let the other team score type of situations. Nothing wrong with this, in fact after seeing Lovie screwup TO situations in Chicago people are going to be bringing up BOB comparisons next yr.
I think it's odd we all believe we know enough to judge Culley's game/ clock management. From our couches.
But Culley was clueless after 27 years on the sideline.
I'm not disagreeing with you, just recognizing it's different when you are the HC. They all screw it up their 1st year, look at Stanley in LA.
I don't know what's true & what isn't. We're all trying to infer what's what, based on what happened.
I don't know how Lovie got into the conversation. If Caserio brought him into the mix, or if Cal finally had a good idea.
But if GameBoy came to the conclusion that he had to step in, we need to take the blinders off about how "good" a job Nick was doing.
Remember, Cal just wants to play video games.
Carr Bombed
Hall of Fame
Might as well, they have just as much football experience as Easterby.. I think I might go put my resume on indeed and send it to them.
Speedy
Former Yeller Dweller
So JJ deserved a shot at the superbowl? Team obliged....... then JJ dumped on the team. Ingrate in my book.
Agree with the rest of the post.
First of all, team didn’t oblige anything. They cut him to save themselves $17M.
Secondly, being unhappy with a different direction your employer takes doesn’t make you an ingrate.
Quoted for truth
I'm beginning to think Easterby doesn't have as much power as some would like to believe with the latest Lovie deelopments.
Truth is the Calhoun's are still the same old dysfunctional org that they always have been, there are just different players in this shell game Calhoun is running. It's all a big con game.
Just remember this, there's the same dysfunction between the GM/HC as in the past 20 yrs. This comes directly from Calhoun. If Calhoun didn't want this then 1 person would be totally responsible for the success or failure of the on the field product. Calhoun has chosen to continue the model his daddy taught him and this means we're going to see alot more of what we've seen over the past 20 yrs.
Not rooting for this, but the best thing that Texans fans can hope for at this time if they want a winning football team is for Janice to die and the siblings all want their piece of the pie immediately so this will force Calhoun to sell the team.
cuppacoffee
Resident Grouch
Agree to disagree.
JJ asked out. I don't blame him for that.
J.J. Watt asked for his release from Houston Texans after the 2020 season, and instead of trading him for assets, the Texans decided to honor Watt's wishes.Feb 12, 2021
did jj wtt request a trade - Google Search
www.google.com
When asked about his decision to release Watt, Texans owner Cal McNair said he wanted to honor the wishes of arguably the best player in franchise history. Instead of waiting on the trading block, Watt can immediately begin fielding calls from teams interested in acquiring his services.Feb 12, 2021
Texansballer74
The Marine
Watson cap hit percentage wasn’t even a factor yet anyways. Bill O’Brien and company already wrote fat checks to several players. Basically their core players were paid and full.
Look at the Chiefs. Mahomas got his contract and so did a few of their core players.
Here in the next few years quarterbacks like Burrow, Hebert, Jackson and few others will be making around 50 million a year. That’s the nature of the business now. Wide receiver Adams wants 30 million a year. He wants to be the highest paid WR in the game. The next elite left tackle will want to be the highest paid lineman. And brother they will get it. Even if their QB is eating 14-20% of the cap.
Look at the Chiefs. Mahomas got his contract and so did a few of their core players.
Here in the next few years quarterbacks like Burrow, Hebert, Jackson and few others will be making around 50 million a year. That’s the nature of the business now. Wide receiver Adams wants 30 million a year. He wants to be the highest paid WR in the game. The next elite left tackle will want to be the highest paid lineman. And brother they will get it. Even if their QB is eating 14-20% of the cap.
austins23
Hall of Fame
To the bolded parts.
1) This is still confusing as all get out to me. Lots of us said he (Culley) wasn't going to be here long anyway, couple of years tops. I still think he was hired to be a cheerleader of some sort. But a qualified coach can do that, and should do that. Never really understood the Culley hire. It never made sense and still doesn't.
2) I don't think Lovie was Nick's choice. I think ultimately the organization got strong armed (or buckled to pressure from somewhere) and just decided, "screw it, lets hire Lovie!" I don't know, it just doesn't feel right. It's hard to explain. At least, so far, Lovie has been able to hire the coaches he wants to coach. Or so it seems.
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1. True, I think he wanted to buildup the team before he put the HC he wanted in place. Culley messed that up and now Caserio is stuck with Lovie.
2. True, the just doesn't feel right part of your post describes the Texans org over the last 20 yrs and I suspect the dysfunction will remain as long as Calhoun is in charge. It's the McNair Way.
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Texansballer74
The Marine
Agreed, I think they hired Culley in hopes of convincing Watson to stay. ( hired a minority coach since that’s what he wanted). Even though he wanted Eric Bienemy ( spell check) Remember he wanted them to keep Kelly and that’s what we did.
I truly believe Lovie was hired because of the back and forth as well as the indecisiveness between the masses. Therefore. Cal stepped in and said we’re hiring Lovie. And the rest is history, like you said Lovie is hiring his guys. Something a new HC should be doing anyways
Dejaview
All Pro
What I want to see first is how NC’s profiles for players at each position (and Lovie is on record for stating how impressed he was with the draft room last year and with these profiles) help to draft pluggable good players into positions each draft and/or each FA period and how Lovie gets his OC and all coaches to take these players and integrate them into hopefully a standard system each year. Players demanding exorbitant salary increases at positions of not immediate need can be let go ( or traded) for draft picks and a backup filling the positional requirement can be plugged in. NE always seemed to be good at replacing good player losses to support Brady and the NE style player profiling may be what NC is using.
Texian
Hall of Fame
1) IMO Culley was hired because Nick really had no clue in what he was doing.
2) The McNair's `were the ones who hired Lovie because Nick was repeating #1.
3) While none of it makes sense, hiring Lovie in the manner they did makes the most sense of all.
4) I agree, I think some trusted senior NFL person/owner helped Janice to keep the Texans from making the same mistakes from the year before.
5) Janice agreed to the sage advice to hire Lovie. Lovie presented his list of demands and Janice agreed once more and was relieved when it was done and over with.
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austins23
Hall of Fame
If 1, 4 and 5 are true...this team is screwed, blued and tattooed until sold.
Texian
Hall of Fame
I could see someone like Gayle Benson owner of the Saints or Tony Dungy, calling the lonely widow Janice wanting to help and be a friend. Texans are not the only ones in this boat. There are quite a few teams in the NFL with widows who are team owners.
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While I agree, my initial point was this is more than fans just looking at something to complain about.
You describe systematic and foundational dysfunction from the owners on down, and that alone certainly justifies fan discontent and criticism.
It's not that I'm sitting on my couch. In 40+ years of closely following the NFL, I've never seen a new HC need the training wheels of his GM on the headset to make basic decisions during games.
Sure, they have assistants that help keep them informed, but the freakin' GM? That should be a job that is beneath his status. So is he a control freak?
But overall, Culley seemed like a genuinely nice guy, but he appeared clueless on the sideline and in press conferences. There was never a moment where he felt like a head coach.
I understand. The concept of a so-called "placeholder head coach" never sat right with me. Regardless of why they hired him, it was a dumb move that did nothing but waste our time and perpetuate the on-going dysfunction. Hearing that it may have been to appease Watson just tells me that the owners are a bunch of beta personalities. That ship sailed when they hired Caserio, so doubling down by hiring Culley just made them look even weaker.
As far as Lovie, they look (to me) like they accidentally made a good decision by hiring him. Even if he can't turn things around, I don't think he will set this franchise back like O'Brien did or hiring a glaringly unqualified candidate like McCown would have done.
SnakeEyes
Under NRG
Been seeing it in random articles. Is it fact not sure but with smoke comes fire. I'd say it is pretty good bet he at least was giving him clock management ideas.
Stuff like: We should run it a few times to eat clock and try to establish the run
Could be. I thought it was just what he was used to. I also assumed a humbling “team player” attitude. But you know what happens when you assume.
I thought he did fine as a 1st year HC. Well, I agree he was clueless in press conferences.
I was also fine with firing him because I thought there was a plan. But as “the process” played out, I learned otherwise
It really is a head scratcher. Especially when you consider that the man that they all love & have 100% confidence in now was here last year. But last year somehow Culley was a better choice than Lovie who we absolutely know was available.
In my opinion this was Caserio trying to have more control than a GM should. Hopefully he has learned his lesson.
If you're right the Texans org is owned by idiots and they will never win a damned thing. An 85 yr old woman calling the NFL League Office asking who they should hire? LMAO
If the McNair's even cared I would call them losers.
How much control should a GM have?
There needs to be 1 person in charge of everything and he should be allowed to do any and everything he thinks he needs to do to bring a winner to Kirby. If he fails, he fails, but until Calhoun accepts that this is the way winning orgs work the Calhoun's will never be a winning org.
Texansballer74
The Marine
In the National Football League, the general manager (GM) of a team typically controls player transactions and bears the primary responsibility on behalf of the team during contract discussions with players.
The general manager is also normally the person who hires and fires the coaching staff, including the head coach.
The general manager will in many cases have oversight of the entire football department, typically reporting to the team president/CEO and/or owner. However, some teams have the GM act in advisory role with the head coach having oversight of the football operations (including the GM).
Some teams do not have official general managers, but instead have a de facto GM. Similar positions include President of Football Operations. Bill Belichick of New England Patriots is an example of a coach who is the de facto general manager; he has never been officially named or granted the title of general manager but he has the final say in football operations.
General manager (American football) - Wikipedia
Haven't read this anywhere, I'm not saying these articles dont exist. Depending on who wrote these articles I wouldn't trust them.
Example: If Aaron Reiss wrote the article, I'm much more likely to believe this than say a guy like Rivers McCown. BTW, Never trust a guy named Rivers and is Rivers related to Josh?
In the National Football League, the general manager (GM) of a team typically controls player transactions and bears the primary responsibility on behalf of the team during contract discussions with players.
The general manager is also normally the person who hires and fires the coaching staff, including the head coach.
The general manager will in many cases have oversight of the entire football department, typically reporting to the team president/CEO and/or owner. However, some teams have the GM act in advisory role with the head coach having oversight of the football operations (including the GM).
Some teams do not have official general managers, but instead have a de facto GM. Similar positions include President of Football Operations. Bill Belichick of New England Patriots is an example of a coach who is the de facto general manager; he has never been officially named or granted the title of general manager but he has the final say in football operations.
General manager (American football) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
It appears Caserio has very little control in any of these areas. Calhoun is paying a guy 6 mil a yr to scout players.
Dumbazz
The Calhoun's (This org doesn't deserve to be associated with anything to do with the Great State of Texas) are screwed.
I'm OK with Lovie being in charge of X and O's. But to give a losing HC in both the NFL/College at 63 yrs old is complete and utter lunacy and the reason the Calhoun's are and will continue to be a mediocre org at best.
Looking at the two teams in the Super Bowl. Who is the 1 person in charge of everything?
McVay made the final calls on personnel.
He and Sneed were on the same page
Brown and Tobin make the final calls on personnel.
The model the Calhoun's use hasn't nor will it ever work.