Solomon has always been a Smith apologist and cheerleader. He does not disappoint.
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Offense, not power grab, should concern Texans' Bill O'Brien
By
Jerome Solomon
January 12, 2017 Updated: January 12, 2017 12:54pm
While power tends to corrupt, the quest for power tends to disrupt. (Have you seen "Game of Thrones?")
Right now, Bill O'Brien is being disruptive.
As the Texans prepare for an inevitable disrobing in frigid Foxboro - winter is coming for the Texans in New England, again - media have run wild with talk of how the Texans organization is run.
It is obvious that O'Brien wants more say over matters. And while I don't blame him for seeking said power, if O'Brien doesn't like it here, he should tell Bob McNair, not media.
O'Brien is mistaken if he thinks media maneuvering will get him more power from a man like McNair.
Team sources say there has been a certain tension within the organization since O'Brien's arrival. His "feistiness" rubs some the wrong way.
I don't see that as a bad thing.
When everybody goes along to get along, bad decisions go unchallenged, mistakes are made; Su'a-Filos get drafted and Osweilers are signed for beaucoup bucks.
Who made those calls? Bob McNair knows.
In the NFL, final say is always the owner's, because, well, he is the owner, the only one who doesn't have to answer for his mistakes.
This is what O'Brien signed up for. He knew Rick Smith was the general manager when he took the job.
Lacking leverage
He should have pulled his power play three years ago when he was hired. That was the time to negotiate. (Or he could wait until after his squad pulls off the miracle with an upset over New England, who Las Vegas has listed as a 16-point favorite.)
With two years, at some $5-6 million per year, remaining on his contract, O'Brien doesn't have much leverage now.
As it is, the offseason, off-the-field maneuverings might be more entertaining than the play we've seen from the most boring team in the NFL. Oh, there are plenty of teams that are worse, but none scored fewer touchdowns than O'Brien's offense-less Texans.
This won't distract the Texans players. Their fates are all but sealed anyway.
I asked Bill Belichick, under whom O'Brien worked for five years, about the importance of being in charge of an entire operation, the head coach and de facto general manager, as he has been for the Patriots since 2000.
First, he said his focus this week is on beating the Texans. Then he answered the question.
"It takes a lot of people to run an organization," Belichick said. "There are a lot of people (involved). There's no one person that could do all the jobs that need to be done on any level. It takes a full team and that's what we have.
"Again, just as it relates to Billy (O'Brien), when he got there, they were the worst team in the league … and where they are and the impact that he and his staff have had on that organization … what he's been able to accomplish with his staff, with his development of players, I think is pretty impressive."
No closer than before
A trifecta of 9-7 seasons and a playoff victory over the Silver and Black (and blue) Raiders this year, might impress his friends, but it isn't proof that O'Brien is one of the NFL's top coaches.
It is evidence for the defense … Romeo Crennel's defense, that is.
O'Brien's offense, which for the better part of his three seasons has been an embarrassment, has held the team back.
While O'Brien is worrying about the power to cut players on a whim, as one national writer reported, he ought to be more concerned with how to call a play in which his receiver isn't cut down for a 4-yard gain on third-and-7.
Every second that O'Brien wastes trying to seize more power, he should be using to try to find more ways to power his offense.
I understand where Belichick is coming from, but the hard truth is the Texans are not much closer to winning a Super Bowl now than they were when O'Brien arrived.
It was time for Gary Kubiak to go, but the Parcellian notion that "you are what your record says you are" isn't the be-all, end-all.
The Texans were the worst team in the NFL when Kubiak took over in 2006. They were a middle-of-the-pack team that had a horrible season when he left.
Now, they are a middle-of-the-pack team that had a good season. And they are less equipped to win in Foxboro than they were when they went up there and got stomped in the playoffs exactly three years ago today.
It took the right two broken legs (belonging to Marcus Mariota and Derek Carr) for the Texans to advance this far in the playoffs.
Considering that New England beat Houston 27-0 earlier this season in third-string rookie quarterback Jacoby Brissett's first start, an orthopedic surgeons' convention would have to break out this weekend for the Texans to stand a chance against the Patriots.
Wait. Maybe that's why many of the sourced power stories came out before the Raiders' game.
O'Brien, too, knows that come Saturday night, the lights are going out on the Texans' season.
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