Houston Texans: Victory! Victory! Victory!

It has been an interesting 24-plus hours for the Houston Texans.

The Houston Texans fan base has gone through a very interesting 24-plus hours. From posting a bunch of memes about the Nick Caserio hire on Houston Texans Twitter, to going into full rage mode and making #FireEasterby trend on Twitter because of a spike in anger caused by a cryptic tweet by Deshaun Watson, it is clear that the Houston Texans fanbase is desperate for answers.

Over 48 hours ago, I was praying that the Houston Texans asked Ed Dodds for an interview and that he would help the organization find the right head coach for the job. I was also under the belief that a previous article posted by Sports Illustrated that brought to light all of Jack Easterby’s (the current Vice President of Football Operations), “under the radar,” actions would finally help the Houston Texans organization realize that maybe they need to exist the Easterby interstate.

I was also under the belief that the Houston Texans had learned something from all of their years of trying to copy the New England Patriots, and that they would take all outside help seriously when deciding two of the most front office positions in an NFL Franchise.

Then there is this tweet from Jack Easterby in early January, which is why I started the article the way that I did:

Shows how much I know.

It started when, according to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, Nick Caserio was hired as the new General Manager of the Houston Texans.

Of course Houston Texans fans were disappointed, including myself. Any rational Texans fan would have liked to think, that after an era of Bill O’Brien headlined by horrible trades and signings, that the Texans learned first hand about the fact that the Patriots dynasty can’t have replicated success anywhere else without the great head coach Bill Belichick and the six-time champion quarterback Tom Brady.

Here’s the reality: The Houston Texans didn’t learn a thing.

Houston Texans: Many opinions about the new general manager

I do not want Nick Caserio to mess this up. I am glad for him that he has received this opportunity for himself, and I wish him the best.

My hope is Caserio kicks open the GM office personalized door with some black stylish shoes like James Bond, picks up that phone right away with a Sonic the Hedgehog grin on his face, and then sets a beautiful platform for the Houston Texans for years with a British accent.

I hope Caserio comes in and gets rid of overpaid contracts, frees up a ton of cap space, and maybe even gains a few extra draft picks for next year for the Houston Texans to build on.

Caserio has a lot of valuable experience that can prove worthy to the GM position, even if it was with a dynasty that has a tree of a lot more failures than success when the leaf falls off the tree.

https://twitter.com/BookChat_/status/673252982318743552

What I have a problem with is how Caserio ended up getting this job. This all seems as wrong as it can get.

Incase if you are unaware, here is a quick background on the whole Nick Caserio and Houston Texans saga.

Back in 2019, the Texans originally had Brian Gaine as GM and O’Brien as head coach. None of Gaine’s moves stood out, but none of them were organization thrashing. All of a sudden, the  Texans fire Gaine and attempt to reach out to Caserio soon afterwards for an interview.

However, since Patriots owner Robert Kraft was aware that Easterby was speaking with Nick Caserio at Kraft’s home during the Patriot’s championship ring ceremony, the Patriots charged Easterby with tampering.

As a result, the Houston Texans backed off and the tampering charge was dropped. O’Brien became the GM of the Texans and Easterby became the Vice President of Football Operations.

What is important from that story is that the Houston Texans, more specifically Easterby, have wanted Caserio for a while. This hire is not surprising, but it is a story that needs to be discussed.

Anyways, the Houston Texans fans suffer through the combination of O’Brien and Easterby for two offseasons, and believe me when I say this, Easterby was almost involved in those offseason moves as much as O’Brien was.

Easterby was a huge driving force behind the DeAndre Hopkins trade. Who’s to say he didn’t have an affect on any other moves that the organization made during this span?

Houston Texans: Many moves have been made that weren’t great

Here are the major moves  — with a side note — made during these two years and there were a lot of them:

• Jadeveon Clowney traded to the Seattle Seahawks —The return was nowhere near Clowney’s actual value at that time.
• Texans trade for Laremy Tunsil and Kenny Stills — They received good player value, but was overpaid for, especially considering that one of the picks the Miami Dolphins will be using is a third pick in the first round.
• Houston Texans trade for Duke Johnson — Not a severe overpay but not a steal either, third round pick.
• Texans trade for Carlos Hyde — The rare trade heist for the Texans, they give up a lineman they were going to cut and get a 1,000 yard season out of Hyde.
• Extended contracts —  Whitney Mercilus and Benardrick McKinney received some nice money to double-digit per year contracts. Maybe the the best overall decision.

You would think that since the trades become less lopsided overtime, then the Texans are getting better at their jobs, but it turns out that’s completely off as the next offseason happened:

• Traded DeAndre Hopkins to Cardinals for David Johnson and some draft picks — Do I even need to say anything about this? Most lopsided trade in franchise history, and the Houston Texans were on the losing end by the way.
• Sign Randall Cobb for three years — His production was not worth his contract his first year.
• Traded for Brandin Cooks — Good player who found chemistry with Watson, but a second round pick still feels like an overpay.
• Extended Laremy Tunsil and Deshaun Watson contracts — Expensive but necessary. Important to note that the Texans front office basically handed Tunsil all of the leverage in the world.

Let’s also note that in these two years, none of these moves involved a significant defensive improvement.

The Houston Texans invested a ton of cap space and draft picks into building an offense that never reached their full potential. The draft picks devoted to defense clearly didn’t help as it felt the  Texans defense was getting worse one season at a time. The defense is very near non-existent now.

Houston Texans thoughts on the front office moving forward

The Houston Texans front office was the reason the Texans ultimately failed expectations. They couldn’t maintain a contending front office because of their moves and they are not looking appealing to a lot of people, if any.

The Texans — who finished the 2020 season at 4-12 overall — eventually fired one of the big pieces, that being former head coach Bill O’Brien, but one of the two still remain: Mr. Jack Easterby.

Let’s put a pin in that for a second.

When Cal McNair was interviewed about a status update on the search for future head coaching and general manager candidates, and his response was:

"“I think what we’re going to do is put together sort of an ad hoc committee of maybe four or five experts outside of the Texans, but really leaders in football and in sports, possibly a former player, to get insights and wisdom on the process and how structures might look and people might fit in those structures and what the best way is to put this thing together,” McNair said. “So we’re going to look putting that together here real soon and maybe next time we visit, we can visit more about that.” McNair also hired Korn Ferry, a search firm. They were likely given a big contract to advise candidates for the Houston Texans to hire."

So the resources were definitely there. The ad hoc committee included NFL experts, Korn Ferry was involved, and there must have been a lot of money poured in to gain access to these resources.

Korn Ferry was paid to do their homework, and they probably worked decently with their research, and the NFL experts, who have likely had success in the NFL world, likely gave all of their solid opinions.

Then I see this tweet:

Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network tweets:

"“Caserio is very highly thought of. I’m saying Cal McNair paid a search firm to help with the process and then went off the board anyway. Supposedly Easterby made a big push on Sunday.”"

This is where I start to lose my mind.

Houston Texans, Cal McNair and the search committee

Cal McNair had a search committee and an ‘ad hoc’ committee of NFL experts at his disposal, and he ends up being persuaded by Jack Easterby, the main reason the Houston Texans are considered a laughing stock around all NFL teams and their fanbases.

Teams were trying to rip the Texans off at the trade deadline because no front office respected the Texans enough to offer a deal that would benefit both sides, as Romeo Crennel said: 

"“I’m not trading for peanuts. If they make a substantial offer then we will consider it.”"

McNair trusted a man who watched the downfall of his own team and demanded the Hopkins trade over a search firm who he paid millions to along with a committee of NFL experts. That is very telling. That was a finding I did not expect to find before the offseason began for the Houston Texans.

I do believe that the fans of the Houston Texans, who dedicate their time and money to this team, should get an answer on why McNair chose to listen to the opinion from the man that majority of the fan base has begged be released from his job.

Many people all over the NFL consider Easterby’s rise in the NFL unconventional and many have wondered if he is even remotely qualified to be in the current position he has.

Easterby desperately needed this hire. After facing fire during the season due to a published article by Sports Illustrated discussing all of the wrong-doings Easterby had forced, he needed a security blanket.

McNair gave Easterby that security blanket with a warm and comforting hug right afterwards. Caserio is not only Easterby’s good friend and co-worker from New England, but they also have the same agent, Bob Lamonte.

Caserio would be thankful that Easterby brought him to Houston, and Caserio definitely wouldn’t fire Easterby in the near future. Anybody could argue that a GM who had never worked with Easterby would’ve handled things completely differently.

Another thing to note would be that one of Deshaun Watson’s demands, and likely the most important, for the offseason was:

"“We just need a whole culture shift. We just need new energy. We just need discipline. We need structure. We need a leader so we can follow that leader as players.”"

I will state that Watson is saying this in regards to the head coach, not the GM. However, why wouldn’t they hire somebody who hasn’t had previous experience in New England? They seem to stick with the Patriots method, and that is clear with who they hired at GM.

Why wouldn’t Easterby and Caserio do the same thing for the head coach position? Hiring somebody from the Patriots does not fix the cultural issues. It expands the cultural issues further.

According to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, Caserio plans on managing the Houston Texans, “The Houston Way.” The Houston way for almost the last decade is stealing members from the Patriots front office to try and recreate their dynasty without Bill Belichick or Tom Brady.

If there is a Houston way of running things, I would certainly like to know what it is because I haven’t seen it. Unless if they are referring to the last offseason, in which case we should have nothing to worry about. Right?

Everything comes back to Victory! Victory! Victory! from Jack Easterby. The real, and possibly the only, winner of the Nick Caserio hire.