The Houston Texans Offseason
The To-Do List
2022 Dream Draft Pick: Aidan Hutchinson
The Houston Texans will be in a draft for value state of mind when Day 1 comes and this team would love nothing more than for the bets NFL draft prospect Aidan Hutchinson to fall to them at the 3rd overall pick. Hutchinson has the highest floor in the NFL draft and plays one of the most important positions in pro football outside of the quarterback position. The Texans need all the help they can get and if Hutchinson miraculously fell to them, it will go down as the steal of the night and give Texans fans hope for next season.
Draft the best players available
This team has so many flaws all over the roster that they can't go into this draft with any nuanced plan nor do they have the cache to reach for players they like more than others and the only thing they need to do in this draft is to get the best players available. Outside of Deshaun Watson and Laremy Tunsil, who we'll get into later, this team doesn't have much going for them and it looks like the beginnings of a decade long tire fire of an organization but getting quality players through the draft and at least making an effort to get the best players of available will put this team back on a track of success. If they don't trade away draft picks, this team has a shot at getting excellent players falling through the draft as they possess the 3rd overall pick in the first round and picks close to that slot throughout the NFL draft. Getting steals in the draft is the name of the game for this team and if they kick off their draft with Aidan Hutchinson or Kayvon Thibodeaux at the 3rd overall pick, it could set a great tone throughout the draft. New head coach Lovie Smith is now the man in charge of getting this ship back afloat and steering it into a positive direction and I doubt that he will risk taking big swings on players in this draft as this franchise starts its rebuild.
Trade off assets from players to draft picks
Yes, yes, yes. This team needs to be blown up and assets completely jettisoned as the Lovie Smith era in Houston begins and those include their two best players in Deshaun Watson, Laremy Tunsil, and their 3rd overall pick despite previous article written above telling them to draft the best players available. This team needs a future and unfortunately for them they currently don't have with the team currently constructed and getting more pieces to add to this team as well as rid itself of toxic relationships is how you rebuild a franchise.
Lovie Smith should come at this team like a bank after someone declares bankruptcy and start liquidating assets and starting from scratch because this team is going nowhere currently with its present construction. This team has to start rebuilding at some point and their no better time than the present. Texans fans deserve a fresh start in Houston and an experienced coach like Lovie Smith certainly can certainly lead this team.
- Deshaun Watson: This team without Deshaun Watson is hot garbage and his massive contract weighs heavily on this organizations cap with no way out from under it to no fault of their own with Deshaun Watson's legal issues involving alleged sexual assaults and harassments and Watson has been rumored to be getting traded for quite awhile only to have reports be dubbed down because of worrisome legal ramifications as well as his unlikelihood to play. Trading Watson also doesn't free up any cap room for this team as a staggering $50,000,000 in dead cap gets eaten in the trade by the Texans which makes this an unlikely scenario but if he somehow pulls through this season on top of his legal troubles, I fully expect him to get traded very quickly as he would be the hottest trade commodity as a quarterback in the history of the NFL in my opinion and could fetch Herschel Walker level draft capital. I would also trade Watson out of town because his defiance of the organization AFTER getting his fat contract shows that he's a bit of a problem when he gets what he wants and further giving into his potential coaching demands, despite being very legitimate at the time with Eric Bienenmy wanting to coach him after building Patrick Mahomes into the best young quarterback we have ever seen, will only hurt this team not to mention off field issues have been a major blight on this organization.
- Laremy Tunsil: This decision to me is one of the most obvious ones this team could make because although Laremy Tunsil was traded for to protect the franchise quarterback in Deshaun Watson, Watson clearly doesn't need protection on the field as he's dealing with issue legally and the Texans have young pro bowl offensive tackle blocking for a franchise with out and answer at the quarterback position so trading him to a team that's only missing the left tackle position, LOOKING AT YOU CINCINNATI BENGALS, would be in the best interest of the franchise. Laremy Tunsil injured his thumb in 2021 which cost him the season, or in my opinion probably sat out as he abandoned this sinking ship, but if he had played he certainly would have made a pro bowl and probably have been in an All-Pro player with his ability and teams certainly know this. The Texans need to start from scratch and trading away their best asset by far in Tunsil certainly helps given them the draft capital and clean books in the future to make moves. Tunsil is a $26,000,000 player that is worth the money whose simply wasting his time in Houston and trading him away from a couple Day 1 picks plus many Day 2 and Day 3 draft picks is the way to go for Lovie Smith.
- The 3rd overall pick: Yes the 3rd overall pick should be available for teams to trade for because in my opinion one single player isn't going change this franchises fortunes at the top of this draft and it might be their valuable asset heading in to 2022 season if one of these quarterbacks becomes more desirable. The 3rd overall pick in my opinion is probably where a quarterback need team is likely to trade for because Jacksonville certainly is going to want to draft an offensive tackle of their choice and while the Lions have expressed interest in trading the #2 overall pick in the draft, they are going to want an immense price for the pick because they would be giving up their chance at Aidan Hutchinson who fits the Dan Campell led Detroit Lions like a glove. If the Carolina Panthers, who have reportedly shown heavy interest in drafting a quarterback want to trade up from #6 to #3 they certainly could be very willing to give up huge sums of draft picks to ensure they get their guy.
Lovie Smith should come at this team like a bank after someone declares bankruptcy and start liquidating assets and starting from scratch because this team is going nowhere currently with its present construction. This team has to start rebuilding at some point and their no better time than the present. Texans fans deserve a fresh start in Houston and an experienced coach like Lovie Smith certainly can certainly lead this team.
Quit being the world's dumbest Sports franchise
This is obviously not an average item on the offseason To-Do lists I have written for other teams but it needs to said because this team is turning into an absolute laughing stock of a sport organization. From the McNair ownership to the front office under Nick Casserio to the, now former former head coach, Bill O'Brien and to the basket case that currently is the quarterback Deshaun Watson this team has absolutely gone from a potential Super Bowl contender to an embarrassing cesspool of terrible decisions, toxic culture, and bad players throughout the organization. The McNair families poor rhetoric on it's players to their lackadaisical approach to improving the team to always some how being at odds with their stars the ownership in Houston has absolutely bungled away this teams popularity and prowess in the NFL. And to make it worse these owners were ok with firing the one thing that actually and shockingly went well with this organization and that was African-American head coach Arthur Culley who took this crap fest to a 4-13 team which is impressive considering he was without his two best players in Deshaun Watson and Laremy Tunsil which helped light the fire under former head coach Brian Flores to sue the NFL for racial discrimination which I am sure NFL team did not appreciate from Cal McNair and company. General manager Nick Casserio is also somebody to blame for this mess considering that all of this toxicity could have been avoided if he had hired Eric Bienenmy as the head coach and not Culley, although Culley did pretty well, because Watson wanted Bienenmy as his head coach after what he's done in Kansas. And to turn around and fire Culley after a season only to try and replace him with a lesser "White" coach during the Brian Flores vs the NFL made this situation for the NFL much worse than it looked despite begrudgingly signing Lovie Smith. And for Nick Casserio and Cal McNair to even have a high school assistant coach and former journey quarterback in Josh McCown even be considered for the head coaching position of the Houston Texans is downright criminal and only goes to show just how bad the upper management of this organization is when it comes making decisions as a collective and how little they care about making smart decisions.
Although it was two coaching hires ago, it's very recent in worth noting that the McNair family gave the reigns to all team decisions to former NFL head coach Bill O'Brien whose most abysmal move was trading away DeAndre Hopkins, the preeminent receiver in the NFL at the time, for a 2nd round pick and broken down running back in David Johnson which pissed off Deshaun Watson, J.J. Watt, and every single Texans fan in the nation as it will go down as the most lopsided trade in the 21st century. It was a sign off things to come as the heart and soul of the organization left in J.J. Watt, oddly enough to the team DeAndre Hopkins was on, as then O'Brien was fired along with his personnel director in David Easterby who signed Zach Cunningham to a big contract in 2020 only to watch his former team cut him in 2021.
Then their is quarterback Deshaun Watson who held out after the David Culley hiring and told the team he wouldn't play for in 2021 and then his skeletons' in his closet became far too numerable and far too serious to ignore which resulted in one of the worst lawsuits the NFL has seen in many years with over 20 accusers claiming sexual misconduct, sexual harassment, and sexual assault over his short career in Houston involving massage therapists and he has gone from a high profile quarterback to the biggest joke in sports with the organization unfortunately chained to his hip after they gave him his mega deal. He's been nothing but pain in the ass of the Houston sports world and this is a city that had James Harden and Russell Westbrook mucking up the rockets and the Houston Astros getting caught cheating during their world series run and becoming the biggest mockery of sports since the Black Sox of the 20's. They unfortunately can't trade him without getting screwed in the salary cap teams like I said before don't want the heat he brings from a legal perspective and although he's talented and superstar athlete his actions and conduct with ownership as well as his off the transgression tank his trade value.
This team has also drafted poorly not because of bad coaching or a terrible scouting department, although theirs plenty of that, but they haven't had the first round picks available to make sound picks for this team due to them trading for Laremy Tunsil whose been the only thing that has gone well for this team as he's proven to be an elite blindside blocker, however he hasn't been able to block for Deshaun Watson which was the entire reason for his trade to the team, further showing the fustercluck that is the Houston Texans.
This was a long ramble of why Houston needs a reboot from the franchise down outside of Head Lovie Smith bead decisions, bad management, and bad play have lead to a horrific product on the field and I wouldn't blame anybody for not wanting to coach, play, or manage this team. If I had to assign blame for this mess it would certainly be the McNair family because a fish rots from the head down and this fist in Southern Texas is damn near gangrenous.
Although it was two coaching hires ago, it's very recent in worth noting that the McNair family gave the reigns to all team decisions to former NFL head coach Bill O'Brien whose most abysmal move was trading away DeAndre Hopkins, the preeminent receiver in the NFL at the time, for a 2nd round pick and broken down running back in David Johnson which pissed off Deshaun Watson, J.J. Watt, and every single Texans fan in the nation as it will go down as the most lopsided trade in the 21st century. It was a sign off things to come as the heart and soul of the organization left in J.J. Watt, oddly enough to the team DeAndre Hopkins was on, as then O'Brien was fired along with his personnel director in David Easterby who signed Zach Cunningham to a big contract in 2020 only to watch his former team cut him in 2021.
Then their is quarterback Deshaun Watson who held out after the David Culley hiring and told the team he wouldn't play for in 2021 and then his skeletons' in his closet became far too numerable and far too serious to ignore which resulted in one of the worst lawsuits the NFL has seen in many years with over 20 accusers claiming sexual misconduct, sexual harassment, and sexual assault over his short career in Houston involving massage therapists and he has gone from a high profile quarterback to the biggest joke in sports with the organization unfortunately chained to his hip after they gave him his mega deal. He's been nothing but pain in the ass of the Houston sports world and this is a city that had James Harden and Russell Westbrook mucking up the rockets and the Houston Astros getting caught cheating during their world series run and becoming the biggest mockery of sports since the Black Sox of the 20's. They unfortunately can't trade him without getting screwed in the salary cap teams like I said before don't want the heat he brings from a legal perspective and although he's talented and superstar athlete his actions and conduct with ownership as well as his off the transgression tank his trade value.
This team has also drafted poorly not because of bad coaching or a terrible scouting department, although theirs plenty of that, but they haven't had the first round picks available to make sound picks for this team due to them trading for Laremy Tunsil whose been the only thing that has gone well for this team as he's proven to be an elite blindside blocker, however he hasn't been able to block for Deshaun Watson which was the entire reason for his trade to the team, further showing the fustercluck that is the Houston Texans.
This was a long ramble of why Houston needs a reboot from the franchise down outside of Head Lovie Smith bead decisions, bad management, and bad play have lead to a horrific product on the field and I wouldn't blame anybody for not wanting to coach, play, or manage this team. If I had to assign blame for this mess it would certainly be the McNair family because a fish rots from the head down and this fist in Southern Texas is damn near gangrenous.