6. I think I know enough about the inner workings of the Texans—and the significant dissatisfaction of the players in the locker room about Palcic’s firing and the shock to those particularly in the national press who work with her regularly—to know that this was a patently stupid move. Stupid if for only one reason: The franchise is headed into a vital offseason. The Texans will miss the playoffs for only the second time in the last six years, and they will be looking for a head coach for the first time since 2014 and also a general manager. Let’s say the coach they settle on is Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. Let’s say Bieniemy has more than one choice, and the other choice is the New York Jets, and his agent looks into all aspects of the two jobs. Normally, you’d probably say,
The Toledo Mud Hens is a better job than the New York Jets. But then you think Texans versus Jets. You think the Jets have five picks in the first three rounds in 2021 and two first-round picks in 2022, and a stable GM in Joe Douglas. (You may have the first overall pick, of course, in 2021.) And you think:
• Houston has
Deshaun Watson, but by signing for only four years this year he signaled that he’s not so sure about the future of the franchise.
• Houston has massive personnel holes but won’t pick till the third round of the 2021 draft because of past trades, which included trading DeAndre Hopkins for next to nothing.
• Houston (entering Week 10) is 21st in scoring even with the great Watson, 29th in points allowed and 30th in yards allowed—even with
J.J. Watt and
Whitney Mercilus (32 and 31 years old, respectively, next season) on defense.
• Look at the salary cap. Houston’s top eight 2021 cap numbers will cost the team a combined $109 million. That leaves $66 million for the last 45 players on the roster, before re-doing contracts or cutting players. Not good.
• Houston just let go one of the best PR people in the NFL because she wasn’t “a cultural fit.” Is this some good ol’ boys club with an owner reticent to be involved and some unknown club president? Look at the reaction of players, who rarely if ever care about who the PR person is. Some are angry.
If Bieniemy has more than one choice, even with Watson on the pro-Houston side of the balance sheet, does the idiotic Palcic move just add more fuel to fire of avoiding the Texans at all costs?
7. I think I saw Ian Rapoport’s report on the Texans possibly hiring the current interim coach, Romeo Crennel, as coach for 2021, in part because of the complications of conducting a coaching search in COVID times. Good story by Rapoport. But, really? My skepticism isn’t because Crennel could not do the job—though he will be 74 at the start of the 2021 season. If the Texans conduct a search and Crennel’s the best man for the job, fine. But the NFL conducted free agency in the early days of the pandemic and got it done. The NFL conducted the draft in the heart of the pandemic; got that done too. The NFL has played 147 football games during the pandemic; through 10 weeks, there is not one game that has not either been played or rescheduled. And using Zoom and private planes, with potential coaches and interviewers who are tested every day, you can’t conduct a coaching search? That might be the dumbest thing I’ve heard all season. It sounds much more like a team that knows it might not be able to get a good candidate to come to Houston because of all the strikes against it. Imagine America has a vaccine for all by next July 1. Imagine stadiums can be open again. Imagine telling your fan base that the best idea going forward, when season-ticket holders get their invoices for the 2021 season, is for a stop-gap season. Great idea.