Houston Texans: How to navigate from current doom to Champagne room

What should be the direction of the Houston Texans?

Blowing a 24-0 nothing lead in a divisional playoff game. Trading away one of the best wide receivers in franchise history for virtually nothing. A head coach that may have had the most epic fallout the NFL has ever seen-with an obsession to control everything and make mountains out of molehills.  The franchise’s best defensive player opting for free agency.

When it rains, it pours. The Houston Texans are no exception to that saying- and now their franchise quarterback faces a historic amount of sexual assault allegations that have the future uncertain as investigations are underway.

So where do the Texans go from here? Do they try to trade Watson anywhere and honor his request? Or does due process win out and he’s not moved until a decision is made in court? We could be seeing the hypothetical death of a franchise here if it’s not handled right.

The Houston Texans must sell the farm, and that includes Deshaun Watson

This is a very tough topic to write about. If these sexual assault allegations are true and Watson is convicted for them, then Watson may be suspended for a long time or even face a rare ban from the league.

It could be the worst football punishment in the state of Texas since the SMU death penalty. So what could be the other option if no trade partners are found?  The Texans may be staring down the barrel of cutting Watson.

If Watson was to be cut right now, OverTheCap’s salary calculator shows that move would put the Texans roughly $25M over the salary cap limit. While that is a big problem, if the team is selling the farm, it won’t be the absolute worst thing that can happen.

The benefit of cutting Watson is what it does for the franchise down the road, and just take a look at the numbers from OTC’s calculator below:

Keeping Deshaun Watson- cap space

• 2021: $10,645,155
• 2022: $9,783,255
• 2023: $98,912,520
• 2024: $194,738,167
• 2025: $224,000,000

Cutting Deshaun Watson- cap space post-June 1st cut

• 2021: -$25,457,102
• 2022: $33,983,255
• 2023: $141,312,520
• 2024: $232,138,167
• 2025:$256,000,000

Just look at the difference in cap space between these two situations. It’s going to come down to the decision of his cases, but let’s talk straight football here for just a second. Would it be worth keeping a disgruntled player around for that much longer when there could be a clear upside as to just letting Watson go wherever he desires? It could be a gutsy power play by the Texans.

As a reminder, here’s what OTC says about post-June 1st cuts:

"When a player is cut on or after June 1, only the current year’s prorated bonus and guaranteed base salaries (if they exist) count against the current cap year. All other such cap money is accelerated against next year’s cap."

That cap space is solely based on cutting Watson alone. Who knows what the cap will look like a few years from now with the decisions that will be made with Laremy Tunsil, Whitney Mercilus, and Bradley Roby. These are the next players on the roster with the biggest cap hit. Prime free agents are going to be coming up, and trades could also be made.

The bigger issue may lie above the personnel of the field, and that is of the front office.

Just because the Houston Texans can hire ex-New England Patriots doesn’t mean they should.

If you’ve watched this gradual disintegration of the Houston Texans franchise, you have seen the New England to Houston pipeline be one busy path for up-and-coming assistants to travel to.  Bill O’Brien was from New England, along with Romeo Crennel, and general manager Nick Caserio among the others.

While O’Brien led the Texans to arguably their most successful stretch as a franchise, the ticking time bomb has blown up. Hiring Nick Caserio was one of the things that the Houston Texans screwed up on, and it’s exactly how Deshaun Watson became furious with the team earlier this year. Even the evil Jack Easterby was also a former Patriots staff member.

This isn’t just a Texans problem. It’s an NFL problem- take a look at the tweet below. Why do teams continue to hire Patriots personnel? This is just as ridiculous as Zac Taylor getting a head coaching job with the Bengals, just because Taylor simply existed in the same room as Sean McVay for a season.

So if Cal McNair, the CEO of the team and basically the highest-ranking person inside the building outside of Janice McNair (owner) would actually listen to his franchise quarterback about being involved with these kinds of decisions, maybe it would’ve never happened.

Houston Texans must get draft capital to help the coaching staff

With the Watson situation being what it is, who knows if the trade value will ever be the same after a decision on all his allegations is reached by a court. So how else can the Texans help themselves?

It goes back to the last slide- admit that it’s a rebuilding phase, and sell off what you can to get as many draft picks as possible. It’s only after that point that the Texans could consider going after a new player from a different team to build around.

Or they will literally have the future in their hands- if only the GM and people above can get it right.

The fans of the Houston Texans want the ownership to change.

On our Twitter page here at Toro Times, we ran a poll that hinted about this article and the possible solutions that would help get the Texans back to being a winning franchise. Of the choices, the ownership change quickly dominated the votes.

I can totally see why. The McNair family has come across as tone-deaf in not only the football smarts department but also just public relations as well. Bob McNair’s infamous and disgraceful “Can’t let the inmates run the prison” comment came across as racist. McNair later admitted that he didn’t even regret making the statement, only regretting his apology.

It’s not like D.Cal McNair (Bob’s successor) has really helped the franchise move forward. He kept Easterby around, letting “Evil E” put the incomprehensible thought of trading DeAndre Hopkins into Bill O’ Brien’s head.  Having been involved with the team since its inception and playing a part in numerous head coaching hires, this situation is almost as much on his shoulders as well.

The McNair family lacks common football knowledge

Janice McNair was given the ownership of the team after her husband’s (Bob) passing and now owns 80% of the team. After the McNair’s got their money to purchase the team through the oil industry, they have not done a good job at keeping consistent talent in Houston. Do I need to tell you all the of the stars who’ve left?

A more football-minded individual (or group) would be more suited to run this team. It also wouldn’t hurt to have someone younger and who can understand the social issues that are present in their players’ lives.  Getting upset over players kneeling for the anthem and then attending the George Floyd funeral can only cover up so much.

With a younger owner also comes someone that has more football knowledge than the McNairs would also help. It takes time to build a championship team, but if the atmosphere inside the team facility isn’t conducive for that to occur, then it’s never going to happen.

Let’s recap how the Houston Texans can move from doom to the champagne room.

1. Find a trade partner for Watson.
   1. If that doesn’t happen, then cutting him may just be the way to go. The cap benefits are enormous.
2. Don’t ever hire another New England Patriots assistant coach or executive until Bill Belichick leaves.
   1. The NFL’s obsession with the “Belichick-ian” ways of these assistants is unhealthy. They have hardly worked, outside of O’Brien’s pre-AWOL meltdown.
   2. Continue to sell the farm and acquire ridiculous amounts of draft capital.
      1. By sending off players with the bigger contracts, the cutting of Watson is lessened on the cap.
      2. Picks never go out of style, and once the Texans have enough, they could use those draft picks or trade for a new player to build a franchise around.
      3. Easier said than done, the ownership either must change (either in ownership or strategy) or face the consequences
         1. The ownership ignored the search firm they hired to help them find a GM. Now, look where they’re at.
         2. Get someone else involved to make these critical decisions, someone who listens to the players on how to right the ship.

         From this point on, the Houston Texans have no excuse anymore. They have imploded and have themselves to blame. It’s going to take a massive rebuild for this team to be good again, but there is a path. It’s all about what happens with Watson and going from there.

         Start building the roster with younger players and not the super-old veterans that will help a bad roster turn into a better quality one. Invest in those players and keep them here, listen to them and help the Texans get closer to winning a championship.

         Houston, we have a problem. But we can definitely fix it.