There are three things that people know about me if they are regular readers of this feature. These three things intersect here in one spot, so I thought it was a good time to talk about them for those that are joining us for the first time. The first thing is that writing is not actually my day job. I am a teacher and I could go into specifics, but I generally support special education students in English classes. Someone somewhere decided that I could write a little and therefore I could be helpful
there. It’s a crazy notion.
The second fact is that I also write for our sister site “The Crawfish Boxes” and baseball is probably my first love. I have been doing baseball numbers for decades now and decided to pour that love (the third thing about me) into this feature on Battle Red Blog. All three of these things intersect today as I will describe shortly.
In teaching, they taught us the trick that we affectionately call the sandwich. When you are doing a parent/teacher conference it is almost always because there is a problem. Parents are naturally defensive when there is a problem and meetings can get off to a contentious start. So, we do something called the sandwich. We start with a positive about the student, follow it with the problem, and then end with another positive. This puts the parent at ease and also gives them a positive taste in their mouth when the meeting ends. We are much more likely to get buy in when we do things that way.
Commentary by its very nature is a critical thing. It’s not a ton of fun to use numbers and analytical analysis to talk about how good something is. Some of us here are more positive than others, but I recognize that I tend to fall on the realistic/pessimistic end of that continuum. So, when we are looking at guys like Nick Caserio and DeMeco Ryans, it is easy to get stuck in a loop of constantly criticizing facets of their performance that we find lacking. Positivity simply doesn’t sell.
This is where the baseball portion of the equation fits in. The Houston Astros just dismissed their general manager. We could get into the weeds (and I have at Crawfish) but he was essentially let go because of excessive inaction. He let problems fester either because he was unwilling or unable to fix them. I don’t write about the Houston Rockets, but we could say something similar about Rafael Stone. That should highlight the difference between Caserio and the other two decision makers in Houston.
We could say a lot about why the Texans felt the need to add three wide receivers in a week. We could say a lot about who he decided to add and the price he paid. I think we can grossly simply it by saying that he and the coaching staff were not satisfied with the wide receiver even independent of the Jayden Higgins injury. It is certainly fair to speculate about who they are unsatisfied with. I could imagine that maybe Tank Dell is not going to be ready at the opening bell. The same could be true of Jaylin Noel. We could also look at the likelihood that veterans like Justin Watson and Xavier Hutchinson are deemed as just not good enough.
I’m not going to put words in the mouth of the coaching staff. They can certainly speak for themselves and I imagine how they set up their 53 man roster and injured reserve will speak volumes. However, this is how organizations are supposed to work. The coaching staff communicates a need and the front office works quickly to find a solution. Are any of these three good solutions? We honestly won’t know until we see it (or don’t see it) on the field. Decisive action is not necessarily the same thing as wise action, but it is certainly preferrable to no action at all.
Certainly, when you look at the comments here and at other Texans’ fan sites you can see the criticism. Most of it involves how the offensive line is built. There is certainly more than enough there to chew on. However, I am using my teacher method here and sandwiching that criticism with some positives. The main positive is decisive action. Caserio moves quickly to solve problems. He generally does not hold onto mistakes forever. Most people can identify when they have screwed up. Most people also find ways to deflect and make excuses for those mistakes. He largely has not done that.
So, I offer this as the first half of a sandwich for the criticism I know is coming. I may very well end up panning these additions if they don’t perform on the field. I appreciate the effort though. I appreciate actually addressing a problem in real time. It recognizes the urgency of the situation. It not only addresses the wide receiver room itself, but also the idea that this team has a tighter championship window than they have had the last couple of years. So, kudos to Caserio for now. Obviously stay tuned to see if it all works out.
