In today’s Groupthink, the Battle Red Blog writers discuss the criticism and frustration surrounding General Manager Nick Caserio. Fans’ patience is clearly thinning on the Caserio era for its continuous roster churn, draft pick trades, and infamous inability to protect C.J. Stroud.
Caserio took over as the Houston Texans General Manager January 2021. The first two years were extremely rocky with a combined 7-26-1 record. Since then, Houston has make the playoffs three years in a row for the first time
in franchise history. The roster is full of home-grown stars and key free agent additions. However, the ledger is equally full of missed picks, bad additions, and wasted opportunities. From Kenyon Green to Joe Mixon to Jimmie Ward, the big swings and misses are clear and obvious.
With that said, I asked the writers the following questions:
Nick Caserio gets a ton of flak for his decision makings, issues with drafting lineman, and general approach to roster building. However, he’s built a team that has made it to the playoffs three years in a row and has had consistent success. Answer the two questions below:
- Do you believe all the criticism Caserio gets is warranted?
- Do you think Houston would be better off with another GM at the helm?
Scott Barzilla:
Two very interesting questions. I’d say criticism is warranted on the offensive side of the ball. Most of it could be focused on the offensive line. However, calling him a failed GM is going a bit too far. That leads us into the second question. That’s a resounding no.
Is there a better GM out there? I suppose that’s always theoretically true.
Are you likely to find one if you fire him? That seems unlikely to me.
He’s built a team that has finished in the top eight three years in a row. I think Texans fans have a right to be frustrated and that is particularly true with the way the line has been built but perspective is necessary. This is a good football team and he’s been largely responsible for building it.
Mike Bullock:
I stick by what I said a few weeks ago in a post: Is Caserio the best GM ever? No. Is he the best GM in Texans history? Maybe, if not definitely yes.
It seems like a lot of people criticizing his tenure have forgotten about Bill O’Brien (BO’B), Rick Smith, and Charley Casserly.
Caserio inherited a cap-mess thanks to BO’B and quickly and efficiently dug out of it. A lot of teams get mired in those messes for years and years, if not decades.
His cap management is definitely well above average.
His drafting has landed Jayden Higgins, Aireontae Ersery, Jaylin Noel, Woody Marks, Kamari Lassiter, Calen Bullock, Jawhar Jordan, C.J. Stroud, Will Anderson Jr., Tank Dell, Henry To’oTo’o, Xavier Hutchinson, Derek Stingley, Jalen Pitre, Davis Mills and Nico Collins.
Also above average.
With free agents and trades, he’s brought in Danielle Hunter, Joe Mixon, Azeez Al-Shaair, Dalton Schultz, Ed Ingram, Trent Brown, Sheldon Rankins, Christian Kirk and others who made meaningful contributions.
Again, above average.
Has every move he made been a home run? No. Has any GM ever made nothing but home run moves? Also no.
L4Blitzer:
Well, when you are the GM for a team in the NFL, criticism is part of the job. Wrote a bit about this earlier, but think about when Caserio first got here. The Texans were the joke of the NFL. He helped make them into a serious franchise. In that sense, the criticism is unwarranted.
However, as the Texans evolved into a real contender, the standards changed. Now it’s: “Can the team get over the hump and be a championship squad?” That is a bit more difficult. The O-line misses, especially with Green and Scruggs…yeah, you can absolutely blame that on Caserio. However, like head coaches, GMs can get too much credit and too much blame.
I think Caserio is a solid GM. However, do I think he is peak Ozzie Newsome/Bobby Beathard? No. Still, let’s see what happens over the next couple of seasons. Besides, who else are you going to get? Not like Howie Roseman is going to be available to hire anytime soon.
FizzyJoe:
I believe that some of the criticism is warranted, specifically for his failure to address the O-line and RB rooms with more intensity in 2024 and 2025. In my opinion, both of these years could’ve been Super Bowl years if he was a tad more aggressive. But overall, given Houston’s success over the last two years despite that, along with Caserio’s drafting and contract management, I think he’s been a great GM, and arguably Houston’s greatest ever.
Even in 2021 and 2022 when the Texans were intentionally poor to clear the cap space, which was slurped up by Bill O’Brien and Jack Easterby, the Texans still acquired players in those drafts (Davis Mills, Brevin Jordan) and those offseasons (Eric Murray, M.J. Stewart) that they benefitted from for years or still do. He’s continued to find 2–4 starters per draft while adding quality depth in the offseason during these recent successful years. His value has grown with his ability to time extensions effectively (Nico Collins, anyone?).
So, overall, I think he’s been a great GM, but he’ll now need to perform the most challenging balancing act yet over the next 2-3 years – dealing with the fact he drafted too well and will need to determine what star defenders to let go in free agency, and how to manage a cap nightmare that’ll only get worse as Will Anderson’s and CJ Stroud’s contracts come due. Howie Roseman of the Eagles and Eric DeCosta of the Ravens are in the middle of this mess now, and Tom Telesco arguably got canned in L.A. because of his failure to navigate these problems. Hopefully, Caserio has learned from these guys and will be prepared to keep Houston competitive throughout 2026-2028
Kenneth L.:
My issue with fans’ reactions to free agency is the expectation that roster building should happen linearly. Everyone has their own checklist of needs, and when moves don’t come in that exact order, the response is panic.
Caserio must be evaluated for the sum of his additions rather than the parts of the whole. Individually, trades such as Laremy Tunsil and Tytus Howard can be analyzed as a GM dumping talent. However, he is willing to move on from players and salaries that are no longer valuable or that could stymie further improvement.
Every GM has blind spots. Obviously, Caserio’s is drafting offensive lineman. There should have been adjustments made a long time ago to compensate for this weakness in his evaluation.
I believe the criticism is NOT warranted. Caserio has completely rejuvenated the Texans roster and launched a Super Bowl window that hadn’t been open for over a decade. I hope fans don’t call for Caserio to be fired if they don’t draft an offensive lineman with the 28th pick.
