The Texans are the gang that can’t shoot straight.
After trying to recover from former head coach Bill O’Brien’s tenure and his terrible DeAndre Hopkins trade, it appeared that the Texans were going all-in on a rebuild with star quarterback Deshaun Watson as their foundation. All they needed to do was communicate with Watson, give him assurances that they were committed to building a championship team, treat him with respect and all would be well.
Instead, they grabbed Eddie Valiant’s gun from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and missed with every shot.
Watson, whose heroic league-leading 4,823 passing yard season was wasted by managerial futility, has expressed frustration that the team was not communicating with him after giving him a four-year, $156 million extension a few months ago. This would keep the star with the team through 2025 when he would turn 30. Watson hoped that the team would make a commitment to changing the culture and building a winning franchise.
To date, his hopes have been dashed and now Houston has a major problem.
Watson was a national champion at Clemson. The Texans drafted him with the 12th pick in the first round in the 2017 NFL Draft and he’s led them to two playoff appearances, is a three-time Pro Bowler and now holds the 2020 passing yard crown. Despite that, the Texans never seemed to be a serious threat to the NFL hierarchy. But now that the team’s hood is open, blame should be pointed directly at management.
In October of 2017, The NY Times obtained a recording from an NFL team owner meeting in which Texans’ team owner, Bob McNair, infamously stated that “we can’t have inmates running the prison.” The response was swift. DeAndre Hopkins walked out of practice and most of the team either took a knee or sat before their game against the Seahawks in protest. McNair backpedaled and apologizing for the remark. But then later on he backpedaled from that apology, saying he regretted making it. “I really didn’t have anything to apologize for.” said McNair.
Poor leadership from team ownership flooded straight down and soaked the ranks of executives and coaches.
The managerial trickle down effect
Jack Easterby, the current Executive Vice President of Football Operations, has a convoluted and controversial rise to power in the NFL. Sports Illustrated documented his ascension in a revealing feature that details the story of a man who is blessed with influence and good timing. According to SI’s story, Easterby always had a way with words and a knack for being in the right place at the right time. He rose from a part-time academic tutor to character coach at the University of South Carolina, counseling players and coaches and becoming “an all-around problem-solver” according to SI.
Easterby then became a life coach and chaplain of the Kansas City Chiefs, something they sorely needed in the aftermath of Jovan Belcher’s murder of his child’s mother and subsequent suicide in front of team staff in 2012. A year later, he assumed the same role with New England, tending support during the events surrounding Aaron Hernandez and when the team signed troubled receiver, Josh Gordon.
Yet while his calming voice of reason endeared him to teams and individuals in times of great crisis, it doesn’t mean that he’s qualified for his current position, a position many agree with.
Then there was former head coach, Bill O’Brien. In his seven-year tenure, O’Brien had ups and downs with the Texans, amassing a record of 52-48. But it was his relationship with the players, coupled with an 0-4 start to the 2020 season, that led to his firing.
“When I went to Houston, it took me back to the South and it was so discouraging.” said Ed Reed who played with the team during the 2013 season.
“And it’s not the city, it’s the organization at the time. And they had that old school mentality. You had coaches talking reckless to guys and I’m like, ‘As a grown man, how do you let that happen?’”
In March of 2019, DeAndre Hopkins met with O’Brien where, according to Michael Irvin, the coach brought up comparisons to Aaron Hernandez and expressed his disdain for the fact that Hopkins had children with different women.
While Hopkins said the meeting was “being blown way out of proportion”, the damage had been done and a few days later, Hopkins was traded to the Cardinals for a second-round (2020) and a fourth-round (2021) pick and running back David Johnson.
Mismanagement was also complemented by tragedy. In 2017, then GM Rick Smith took a leave of absence to care for his ailing wife (she passed away in January of 2019). A year later, Bob McNair died, leaving two gaping holes in the organization. That’s when Easterby and O’Brien asserted control and influence, further damaging matters.
Houston, you have big problems
Two years later, O’Brien is gone, Deshaun Watson balled out and the team finished with a 4-12 record. All that was left was for management to convince their players that the organization was putting winning first and was committed to changing the old culture.
Instead, they alienated their star player by not communicating with him about bringing in a new GM and then hiring Nick Caserio who, coincidently, shares the same agent with Easterby. According to CBSSports.com, “the team told him they’d include him in discussions on the hiring of the club’s next general manager and, ultimately, who the next head coach will be, but it appears they reneged on that promise when they hired Nick Caserio in January.”
Watson’s frustration apparently had no effect on Chairman and CEO Cal McNair for not only did he not have a say in the GM position, but he was unable to get the team to interview Chiefs’ offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy for the head coach position.
“We just need a whole culture shift,” said Watson to the media when asked about Bieniemy before the end of the season. “We need a leader so we can follow that leader…too many different ideas and too many people thinking that they have this power, and it’s not like that.”
While the team eventually requested an interview with Bieniemy, the damage has been done and now Watson wants out. Even former Texans’ star Andre Johnson strongly expressed his feelings on the situation, a surprise based upon his normally quiet demeanor.
On Saturday, it was reported that the team is high on Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frasier to fill the head coaching vacancy, but that doesn’t appear to be what Watson needs. Frasier is a defensive genius but not necessarily the offensive mind for Watson.
But at this point, it appears that Watson is done with Houston’s drama, which includes Easterby’s latest claims that he’s being smeared by the Patriots. With all of this swirling in Houston, don’t be surprised if teams like Miami or the Jets start calling about Deshaun.
Too bad for Coach Flores and Coach Saleh that Bill O’Brien won’t be there to make a trade.
