The Texans new GM, Nick Caserio, has only been on the job coming up on 5 months, and is fresh off his 1st NFL draft. From the beginning it was clear Caserio was going to shake things up, as evident with the signing/acquisition of over 40 players since he's been on the job in those 5 months.
Caserio takes over after the Texans fired their previous GM, who was also their HC, Bill O'Brien, who's masterful GM moves plunged the Texans franchise to depths the Titanic would say was deep.
As a HC, O'Brien never seemed to have a handle on talent evaluation. In 2015, his 2nd year on the job, the Texans starting QB was Brian Hoyer. All the off-season workouts and training camp was with Hoyer taking QB1 snaps, working with the 1st team. At the end of training camp, the Texans traded for Patriots backup QB Ryan Mallett. After 1 HALF of the very 1st game of the season, O'Brien benched Hoyer and went with Mallett, who had been a Texan for about 9 days at that point. Mallett started the next 4 games, with the Texans going 1-3, before he decided to go back to Hoyer.
In 2017, the Texans drafted Deshaun Watson with the 12th overall pick in April of that year. But all off-season long, O'Brien was adamant that Tom Savage was the starter, and he took the QB1 snaps in training camp. Savage started that week 1 game, but he didn't finish it, as once again, O'Brien benches his starter and switches QBs in the very 1st game.
O'Brien's lack of not just talent evaluation, but lack of just overall value, came to light when he was promoted to GM after their Divisional round loss to the Chiefs in which after taking a 24-0 lead in that game, were outscored 51-7 the rest of the way. One of the very 1st things O'Brien did as the new GM was make one of the most insane trades in NFL history when he gave away a 3 time ALL PRO WR, DeAndre Hopkins, and couldn't even get a 1st round pick back in return. Instead, all he gets for his efforts was a 2nd round pick, swapping of 4th round picks, and a washed up, highly overpaid RB (David Johnson).
It became clear quickly that O'Brien had no clue of the value of draft picks. As a result, in the Texans last 4 drafts, including this past draft, they've had no 1st round pick in 3 of them, and no 1st or 2nd round pick in 2, including no 1st or 2nd in this year's draft.
Enter Caserio. O'Brien came from the Patriot way, where because of their long 2 decade span of excellance, they seem to think their poop don't stink. That's exactly how O'Brien acted while in Houston, and he wasn't in New England for very long. And when they leave out from under the umbrella of Bill Belichick, very few have had success. The Patriots, of course, is where Caserio has spent the last 20 years, as an assistant, a scout, and Director of Player Personnel, which is the title he's held since 2008.
As mentioned, Caserio has come in and has almost completely overhauled this Texans roster. With free agent signings, trades, and the draft picks, there are 50 players currently on the Texans roster that weren't Texans last season. Through cuts, trades and players leaving in free agency, there are also 37 players who were Texans last year who no longer are. I don't believe I've ever seen that kind of turnover take place in 1 offseason.
Keep in mind, a regular season NFL roster is 53. Then there's 12 or so (not sure of the actual number) players you can sign to the practice squad. In the offseason, however, you can have up to 90 players on the roster. So a whole lot of these 50 new players may not even make the team. Even more so when a majority of these signings have been mostly special teams players during their NFL careers, and a few spot starters, mostly rotational guys. And most are just 1 year signings, who even if they make the team, will become free agents at season's end, and we may be doing this all again next year.
But I want to zoom in on value, which has been a huge issue in H-town the last few years, and in particular, value of draft picks. Draft picks are vital for NFL teams because they allow you to find players to hopefully help your team win, at very cheap prices. That's important when you have to deal with a hard salary cap that you can not go over. Because draft picks are so valuable, you can use them to trade for players, you can use them to move up and down in the draft to either draft who you think are better players, or collect more draft picks.
The first red flag concerning Caserio, regarding the value of draft picks, came before the draft when Caserio gave the Bengals a 6th round pick to acquire QB Ryan Finley. What rose the red flag is that the Bengals were bout to cut Finley. That would have made him a free agent, to go to any team he wanted, with the exception of clearing waivers first.
Waivers are a process where cut players can be claimed by any team, in which they'd take on whatever contract the player had previously. Those teams, however, are placed in a certain order to be able to make a claim, and that order is determined by what your record was the previous season. The Jacksonville Jaguars had the worst record in the NFL last season, therefore, they get the 1st shot of claiming any players that are cut. If 2 or more teams make a claim on a player, that player goes to the team with the lowest order.
The Texans had the 3rd worst record last season, meaning they are 3rd on the waiver list. This order doesn't change until the 3rd or 4th week of the season when it will then be determined by current standings in each of the follow weeks of the season. Worst is first and so on. So the Texans will stay at 3rd until after 3 or 4 games have been played.
The only 2 teams ahead of the Texans on the waiver list are Jacksonville and the Jets. The Jags already had Gardner Minshew on their roster, with a young Jake Luton, who almost beat the Texans last year. They were also about to draft Trevor Lawrence #1 overall in the upcoming draft. So the Jags weren't grabbing any QBs off of waivers. The Jets were in a similar situation. At the time, mid-March, they still had Sam Darnold on the roster, and were expected to take a QB with the 2nd overall pick. So the Jets wouldn't be interested in a QB off of waivers. That means the Texans would have had their pick of any QB that had been cut.
Instead of waiting until the Bengals cut Finley, Caserio trades for him, giving up a 6th round pick in the process. Now these late round picks usually don't amount to much in the NFL, but the picks still hold value with regards to moving up in a draft, if need be, and who knows, the Patriots got Tom Brady in the 6th round. So instead of getting this guy for nothing, the Texans decide to give away a pick instead. And the kicker, the Texans cut Finley 2 months later, before any off-season workouts even began. So they literally threw away a draft pick for nothing.
The next red flag came in the draft. Caserio was already working with his hands pretty much tied behind his back, thanks to O'Brien leaving him with no 1st or 2nd round picks. The Patriots were a team that seemed to trade back in the draft a lot, to pick up extra picks, and that's kind of what I was expected Caserio to do since he didn't have a lot to work with. Instead, he gives up 2 picks in this year's limited draft, and 1 pick next year, to move up to the 3rd round to take Michigan WR Nico Collins. And Collins didn't even play last year because he opted out of the COVID season. The extra pick next year made it seem a little pricey, but if that's the guy you wanted, so be it.
But then came the 5th round. Once you get beyond the 4th round, players taken in the back end of the draft are usually just guys you're looking for to fill depth. Well, the Texans moved up, not once, but twice, to draft a player in the 5th round. They gave up 3 picks (2-6th round & 1-7th), to draft a player in the 5th ROUND!!
And finally, as of June 1st, in all of the dealings Caserio has made since he's been here, he's received back a total of 4 draft picks, and traded away 10. And the 4 picks he picked up were part of the 10 he's traded away. Now, he did get 6 players in return as well, one of which has already been cut (Finley).
The Texans aren't expected to do much this year. In fact, Vegas has them as the best odds to be the worst team in the league this year. That said, and considering the disastrous situation the previous regime left the Texans in, I'm willing to give Caserio a mulligan for this season. But the red flags that are already popping up, are giving me some concerns.
Comments
Post a Comment