As we sit here in the middle of the bye week it becomes apparent in these situations that someone is going to get blamed for why things are going the way they are going. The usual refrain is that you can’t fire the players. That’s actually a misnomer as players get fired all the time. They are cut, waived, released, and demoted. Players see their roles increase and others see their roles decreased. However, talk radio and the sports debate shows don’t make their money talking about releasing or benching
players. They make their money by talking about the guys wearing the polos and hoodies on the sideline. Sometimes, those discussions reach as high as the suits in the front office.
Of course, I make no bones about the fact that this is one person’s opinion and I have never coached a down of football. I did play the game decades ago as a youngster and as the kids would say, that was a hot minute ago. However, the Indianapolis Colts have already fired Chris Ballard. The league usually turns over five or six head coaches a season and numerous assistants will get their walking papers. That will happen whether I bloviate or not. So, if we look at the Texans, here ia short list of who could be on the chopping block.
Cole Popovich
One hardly ever buys completely into stat services like PFF. However, at one point, Juice Scruggs was the highest rated center in the NFL. The fact is that he is the starting center for the Lions and they are generally thought to have one of the best lines in the NFL. Yet, he was deemed to be not good enough to stick around. One could hardly blame that evaluation based on his performance in Houston. So, either he suddenly got better or there is something going wrong in Houston.
Every year we complain about the offensive line. Every year they change the guys up front. Every year we complain about the offensive line. It’s literally an O’Henry story ready to be written. Popovich was promoted from assistant to head offensive line coaches because of reasons. They didn’t even deem to interview anyone else. Somehow having the guy that was in the room when another coach failed seem like the right way to go. It still doesn’t make sense.
Matt Burke
This one hurts because I generally like Burke. However, you cannot go from one of the best defenses in football to one of the worst in one season without having some fallout. Goodness knows how much control he actually has over the situation. DeMeco Ryans is calling plays and two out of the three games looked exactly like the first four games did. Firing Burke feels like one of those “we gotta do something” moves that teams do when they feel that accountability is needed.
Frank Bush
The Texans routinely boasted one of the best special teams units in the league for the better part of a decade. They still have one of the best kickers in the business, but their punting game and coverage games have really fallen off this season. Everyone likes Bush, but in a season where things aren’t going well, fingers get pointed and we often look for areas where the team has seen a fall in production. I would put this one as one of the more unlikely results, but you never know what can happen if things get bad enough.
Nick Caley
Here is where things get interesting. When you look at the overall numbers, the Texans offense ranks in middle of the pack or better in most of the important offensive categories. They rank low in two important categories: running the ball and pre-snap penalties. Obviously, how you feel about Caley depends on your expectations and who gets to set them. It is clear that DeMeco Ryans wants a team that won’t turn the ball over and won’t have negative plays. Check and check. They are not the ball control team that Ryans wants. They will always be a square peg in a round hole as long as that is the expectation.
So, how we feel about Caley depends on a lot of projection. There are times in the game when we collectively yell, “why in the hell are you running that play?” Usually it involves a slow developing running play that everyone in the stadium knows is coming. Yet, we have to ask ourselves if that is what he would do if he were completely left to his devices? It’s an important question because if you fire him thinking he’s the problem and have a head coach that demands ball control then you wind up right back in the same spot you were before.
DeMeco Ryans
I am one of those crazy people that thinks you don’t fire a coach after one bad season. That is of course unless you completely lose faith in that coach. If Ryans did a better job of coaching in games then it is possible this is a 3-4 or 4-3 football team right now. In that case we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Yet, he handled the Jacksonville game well and has shown that he can keep the team engaged after slow starts on multiple occasions. Of course, that begs the question of why we are always having slow starts.
I see this as a Gary Kubiak circa 2010 situation. Kubiak engineered the best offense in the NFL according to some metrics, but they employed perhaps the worst defense in football. Ownership forced Wade Phillips on him and the rest is history. Hannah McNair (the real power behind the throne) might step up and force the issue on the offensive side of the ball. This is especially true if you pay your quarterback 60 million a year. He may get told he is changing styles and the offensive coordinator given more power. I really can’t see Ryans being shown the door because he is so popular and the first three years were so successful, but such a move would be putting him on notice.
Nick Caserio
Obviously, the person on top gets most the acclaim and most of the blame when things go wrong. The trade for Marvin Harrison Jr. might end up working out overall. If he is productive and raises the level of the passing attack then it will be a good trade in that vacuum. Of course, one will obviously point the opportunities that could have come with that draft capital. Could they have added a defensive player that would have impacted the level of the defense? Would another linebacker or safety benn more impactful? I suppose we will never know.
Some of this is based on projection. We know he is responsible for much of the roster and the salary cap situation. Those situations seem fine. What we don’t know is how much control he has had over the assistant coaches. There seem to be a lot of buddy hires here and that could be an area where a Hannah McNair steps in and demands more control in that department. He also gets dinged for three consecutive years of offensive line shuffling that hasn’t worked. Is it the wrong players or the wrong coaches? Either way, like Ryans he might be relatively safe for now, but he will be put on notice.
