Houston Texans: Humiliation, anger and more questions than answers

The Houston Texans are an embarrassment to the NFL, but also to Houston.

Having followed the Houston Texans ever since I started watching football, my mentality has been to always support this team through thick and thin.

It has been 10 years of constant frustration, but I’ve stuck through it all because I always hoped that one day the Texans would finally find the right quarterback to build this team around, and the they would finally become a consistent contender for years to come.

Now I’m near my breaking point with this franchise. It breaks my heart to say it because the Houston Texans are the only football team I’ve ever come to know and love, but the ineptitude of the front office has forced myself to question if it’s worth loving a team that clearly isn’t loved as much by the people in charge.

Houston Texans fans on social media alone would have managed the current situation with the front office decisions and quarterback Deshaun Watson better because they understand the importance of keeping the franchise quarterback informed and happy. Fans of the Texans understand the importance of not letting a man with minimal football experience have an important say in any front office or roster changes.

The fact any of this has to be written is disgraceful and pathetic. This organization has slapped the Texans fan base in the face repeatedly over the last year with careless decisions, and I’m over it.

Deception, manipulation and humiliation. Those three words are the best way to describe the mistakes that this Houston Texans management has committed. This is a front office that is so egotistical as to believe that they are making the best moves possible when the entire Texans fan base, anonymous NFL sources and even previous members of the Texans have called them out for their disastrous decisions. Texans CEO Cal McNair has even boasted about the organization’s ego himself.

This isn’t an organization “committed to excellence,” and they definitely won’t be receiving trust from the fan base any time soon. The fact that they don’t realize it either and fail to own up to their lopsided mistakes and just say once, “We messed up,” just shows how incompetent of a front office they are.

Where’s the transparency with the Texans? Where’s the honesty? Why should fans be investing their time and money into an organization that doesn’t prioritize trusting relationships and a winning mentality?

These are questions I have been recently asking myself, and I have no answer.

I’m going to dive into these mistakes, and I hate to bash the Houston Texans like this, but it’s come to a point to where the organization deserves it. The organization hasn’t committed to improving with the same amount of commitment fans have given the organization, and that truly hurts. If the Texans aren’t committed to this team, then why should we be?

Houston Texans: Has there been deception with decisions made?

After a tough loss vs. the Tennessee Titans in the final week of what was a very dreadful 2020 season for the Houston Texans, Deshaun Watson emphasized an importance in changing the culture in the organization. Watson said the following after the finale:

"“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’m aware that Watson said this in regard to the head coach, but this definitely should also apply to front office changes. There does need to be discipline and structure. There needs to be a leader that players can trust.

Deshaun Watson was said to be allegedly promised that he would be involved in the process of hiring the general manager and head coach, and that absolutely includes being informed about the hiring prior to the entire social media world finding out.

It turns out that Watson found out about the hiring the same way we found out. Turns out the Texans haven’t interviewed any of the candidates Watson was hoping for, and I’m fully aware that Watson shouldn’t have the final say in who is hired.

This isn’t a hard thing to do. It’s a very simple thing, actually. Just keep your best player updated with what’s happening in the front office and ask for his opinion when a next step is taken. It isn’t hard, and it’s especially a really simple promise when it comes to a player with such skill and caliber as that of Deshaun Watson.

Watson is one of the most laidback and understanding superstars in this league. Watson understands that not all things will go his way, and all he expected from the organization was the bare minimum of staying informed and being consulted.

Watson didn’t get the bare minimum. Watson likely didn’t see any of this coming and found out about new general manager Nick Caserio’s hire on Twitter just like the rest of us. Let him feel valued, especially when he actually is that valuable to an organization.

How disillusioned could the front office possibly feel to where such a simple promise for the biggest backbone of the organization be not worth their time and they can just go ahead and completely ignore it?

That is by far the most asinine broken promise I’ve ever seen from an organization. Was there not a single person in that organization that said, “Wait, before we hire Nick, let’s call the best player we have. Let’s call Watson and let him know what we are up to and ask for his opinion because that is what he wanted. It will keep him calm even if he doesn’t like the hire.”

This is why I can’t put any faith or trust in the front office. These kinds of choices this franchise makes is why I believe that the Texans organization isn’t committed to excellence.

This mistake, if it turns out how I think it will, will be the biggest mistake this franchise has ever made. You think hiring Bill O’Brien or trading DeAndre Hopkins was as bad as it could get? Turns out I was right on point, and that is you can’t take star players in Houston for granted anymore.

Houston Texans:  Is there manipulation within the organization?

I am not going to rehash the entire Jack Easterby situation because I already did that a few days ago. However, I do want to update what I originally wrote with some ground-breaking tweets that recently took Houston Texans Twitter by storm, starting with this one from Pro Football Talk:

PFT also had this tweet involving Jack Easterby and his influence in some of the decision making by the front office of the Houston Texans:

These tweets tell me the following information:

• There is a high level of manipulation in this organization, and Cal McNair may have not been the only one that was fooled by it. Maybe Easterby’s manipulation technique is part of what is bringing on the atmosphere of “mistrust,” according to the article that brings to light all of Easterby’s alleged wrongdoings.

This manipulation is extremely dangerous for the organization and can easily result in further damage. This entire episode makes me wonder if McNair has been manipulated by Easterby other times as well in past decisions. Easterby clearly has no respect for McNair if he has done this several times, or even once.

• Clearly Easterby pushed for Caserio for his own job security and self-benefit, ignoring the current process the Houston Texans were going through. This tells me that Easterby doesn’t fit at all any of the qualities that Cal McNair mentioned in the press conference following Caserio’s hiring. Basically, we are all clueless on what Easterby brings to the table.

• There are others around the league who are skeptical about Easterby and would definitely get rid of him if they had the chance. This means that the fan base isn’t delusional, and the only people who are delusional are the front office members building the Houston Texans around Easterby instead of Watson.

What exactly is Easterby’s job? Vice President of Football Operations? More specifics, please? Bill Belichick, the current head coach of the New England Patriots who has had years of experience working with Easterby, said, “He isn’t a personnel person” when asked about Easterby.

Did the Texans even inform Watson they were going with Omar Khan originally? Did they inform Watson that Khan was one of their finalists? When the gears switched elsewhere toward Caserio, because of Easterby, why wasn’t Watson informed?

Would Watson even be upset if the Houston Texans hired Khan, because apparently he would’ve fired Easterby.

So putting all this together… here is what I’ve concluded:

• Easterby doesn’t bring any skillset to the front office that stands out, from what I’m aware of. To me, it seems like any die-hard fan could just take his place and the fan base would see dramatic improvement.

• Easterby was part of a Houston Texans front office with Bill O’Brien that made horrible trades and signings, and he possibly had a big say in personnel.

• Easterby allegedly pushed a hire for a certain GM that he knew would save his own job and completely disregarded what was best for the organization and made the franchise QB unhappy.

The question still remains: “What does Easterby bring that is worth all of the speculation and hatred from the fanbase?” Don’t say “things,” Cal, because we know that’s what you’re thinking.

Easterby needs to go. If the Houston Texans front office fails to see that, then they should be ashamed of themselves.

Houston Texans: Humiliation has been had after decision making

Trading Jadeveon Clowney for low value. Overpaying for Laremy Tunsil. Trading away DeAndre Hopkins for chump change. Overpaying numerous players currently on the Texans roster. Finishing 4-12 with low-valued draft picks and the highest payroll in the NFL. Having an unhappy quarterback who isn’t saying much, if anything, thus far this offseason.

It goes on and on. Yet the Texans fans are the ones who have to sit back without a say and watch as their favorite organization tumbles right in front of them because the front office is too self-centered to realize that they really “screwed the pooch” on this one.

The fan base is the one that tries their best to defend their favorite teams on the internet and get blasted when they fail, and the players take heat for this as well. Yet the front office is just sitting back and watching the cash in your wallet go straight into their bank accounts as a reward of sorts their decision-making.

If this Texans organization trades away Deshaun Watson, then my support for them ends. That would be the last straw. It doesn’t even matter what return the Houston Texans would get for Watson because if they can’t win with Watson, then they can’t win with anybody.

This is a front office that threw away J.J. Watt’s career and will very nearly throw away Watson’s career as well if something isn’t done about it.

This organization isn’t representing Houston in the way it should. I look at the organization and all I feel is anger, pity and humiliation. This is arguably the worst front office in the league, and one I can’t trust.

Note that this is more directed toward everybody in the front office except for Caserio. I know he didn’t cause this mess because he just joined the Texans, but if he fails to repair the situation, and it continues to get worse moving forward, then his name would be tossed in eventually.

I hope it doesn’t come down to that because I do believe Caserio’s experience can be very valuable to the Houston Texans.

If the Houston Texans want to become a legitimate respected organization again, then it needs to fire Easterby and put all effort into saving its relationship with Watson — if possible — and move forward from there. But knowing this organization, I wouldn’t count on it.