Agreed. I guess he loves these silly cases because he knows he'll get free media attention but he comes off as such an idiot in the interviews.

Didn't Cary already lose in court trying to fight for ownership? Now he's saying he lost because of conspiracy?

He got the business, Cal got the franchise. Thought that was pretty clear…

Agstro said:

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I agree that he inherited a tough situation, but lots of missed opportunities and mistakes to go along with some good choices. I think he is very average and we can do much better. He doesn't prioritize explosive playmakers (see RB room). He doesn't know how to pick o-lineman. He couldn't help a rookie defensive minded coach put together a competent coaching staff on offense. He gets worked in draft pick trades constantly. I am just not impressed at all. I think the Cully, Easterby, Lovie fiasco falls in his lap and responsibility. He has done some nice things, but in my view the bad equals or outweighs the good. We could do much better.

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He doesn't prioritize playmakers?

Drafted Nico. Drafted Tank. Traded for Diggs. Traded for Mixon. Obviously, we've had bad luck with injuries, but he has added playmakers.

Can't argue with offensive line, but Green, Scruggs and Fisher were all picked near where they were projected. Coaching and lack of development are factors here. We'll see how Ersery does, but he already looks more promising than the others.

He gets worked in draft trades? He gave up a lot to get Will, but can you point to anything outside of that? If anything, I love his style of compiling picks as ammo to move up when they see a player they like.

I agree that the Culley hire was a disaster, but Easterby was here before Nick, and he didn't last long once Nick got here.

I really don't want my GM telling my coach who he can hire for his staff.

Respectfully, I just disagree. Caserio has gotten it right more often than not.

Ya, we just disagree. No worries. I just think Caserio is very average. I think he overpays in draft capital in trades and often under delivers in the picks he makes. And I think he overpays mediocre vets also.

We don't have a RB with jet speed. We drafted Tank which is nice but obviously risky given his frame. No, I do not think he has added explosive playmakers to this team in a meaningful way except Nico.

Fine to disagree here, but I definitely think we could do better. (And I think he allowed the Easterby nightmare to last longer than it should have. )

Culley was a stop gap, needed a coach to embrace the tank and no good up and coming young coach would want that. Lovie was hired because the Texans got sued by Flores. Easterby was previous regime and Caserio got rid of him.

He needs to hit on offense, which may happen depending upon what happens with the Iowa State guys.

He has been bad at drafting OL, but even the Bears showed that you can go spend a ton of money and sign good OL players, but it may take a bit for it to come into form.

I rewatched some of the game, our offense actually did some pretty good things and it's apparent that there's just a lot of "new" everywhere. It will take a bit of time to gel together. They had a total of 3 players starting at the same position as last year with a new rookie OC. I'll be more concerned if by week 4/5 we're not scoring more TDs, but I never get too high or low after week 1.

2024
QB - Stroud
RB - Mixon
WR - Collins
WR - Dell
WR - Diggs
TE - Schultz
LT - Tunsil
LG - Green
C - Scruggs
RG - Mason
RT - Howard

2025
QB - Stroud
RB - Chubb
WR - Collins
WR - Higgins
TE - Schultz
TE - Stover
LT - Robinson
LG - Tomlinson
C - Andrew
RG - Howard
RT - Ersery

Snake Jazz said:

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He gets worked in draft trades? He gave up a lot to get Will, but can you point to anything outside of that? If anything, I love his style of compiling picks as ammo to move up when they see a player they like.

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He gave a 2nd rd pick to Buffalo for just one year of Stefon Diggs. The injury was unfortunate, but why give up so much for 1 year? Caserio shortened Diggs deal to 1 year after trading for him.

Noble07 said:

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Snake Jazz said:

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He gets worked in draft trades? He gave up a lot to get Will, but can you point to anything outside of that? If anything, I love his style of compiling picks as ammo to move up when they see a player they like.

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He gave a 2nd rd pick to Buffalo for just one year of Stefon Diggs. The injury was unfortunate, but why give up so much for 1 year? Caserio shortened Diggs deal to 1 year after trading for him.

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Exactly. I think he overpays on draft pick trades maneuvering on draft day. And then Eagles and Ravens pick who we could have picked by staying put.

Noble07 said:

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Snake Jazz said:

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He gets worked in draft trades? He gave up a lot to get Will, but can you point to anything outside of that? If anything, I love his style of compiling picks as ammo to move up when they see a player they like.

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He gave a 2nd rd pick to Buffalo for just one year of Stefon Diggs. The injury was unfortunate, but why give up so much for 1 year? Caserio shortened Diggs deal to 1 year after trading for him.

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Yeah, I didn't understand giving up a second rounder for one year of Diggs, either. However, if he stays healthy and leads us to the Super Bowl, nobody is complaining. They gambled that Diggs was that guy and they missed.

Agstro said:

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Noble07 said:

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Snake Jazz said:

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He gets worked in draft trades? He gave up a lot to get Will, but can you point to anything outside of that? If anything, I love his style of compiling picks as ammo to move up when they see a player they like.

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He gave a 2nd rd pick to Buffalo for just one year of Stefon Diggs. The injury was unfortunate, but why give up so much for 1 year? Caserio shortened Diggs deal to 1 year after trading for him.

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Exactly. I think he overpays on draft pick trades maneuvering on draft day. And then Eagles and Ravens pick who we could have picked by staying put.

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The past two years he has traded out of the first, added another draft pick, and then drafted the guy they likely would have taken in the first round anyways. Lassiter looks like a steal. Let's see how Higgins ends up, but early buzz is good.

He trades up a lot, but he also trades back if he feels comfortable about the player they can get later.

Outside of his drafting/development of OL, he has done a good job of drafting.

First Weekly Texans Bingo Update

I guess I should have made "Texans don't score a touchdown vs the Rams" into a category c'est la vie

Your early leaders in the clubhouse are: Snake Jazz, the aptly-named AlwaysNextYear89, and myself for having the confidence to predict the loss. We all have 2 squares, everybody else has 1.

A brief rundown of the Texans, and the rest. The picks and the progress are always available to view here

TEXANS
As you would expect in a 14-9 loss, a lot of sleepy offense. Only Dalton Schultz, aka "TexAgs Mr. Popularity" got anywhere close to the numbers he'll need to hit his bingo squares.

The defense recovered a fumble. 1 down, 13 to go!

OVER/UNDERS
After keeping an eye on Colts-Dolphins all day because I have Tyler Warren in FFL, my only question is: How soon, and how frequently can the Texans play the Dolphins, because holy **** they looked terrible.

AGS AROUND THE WORLD
AChane, who now I just want to call A-Train after binging the first 3 seasons of "The Boys", got 55 yards. It's sort of nuts to think that 17 games of 55 yards gets you 935 yards rushing.

Big Boy Myles with 2 sacks vs the Bengals. Makes 14 look very doable.

STAT MATCHUPS
Big personal shoutout to Joe Burrow, my dynasty league starting quarterback, for cranking out 113 yard like he's on the GD 7th grade B team.

Derrick Henry off to a solid pace of 2,873 rushing yards and 34 rushing touchdowns.

Justin Jefferson and Jamaar Chase combined for 70 yards receiving this week. I watched Monday night's game wondering how long before JJ asks for a trade, even though they did win.


Relevant Week 2 Matchups
Jags at Bengals
Giants at Cowboys
Rams at Titans
Broncos at Colts
Bucs at Texans MNF

Caserio has done a decent to good job, especially considering what he started with. As others have said, his inability to assemble an OL and the Diggs trade are the 2 main questionable decisions he's had. But he has done a good job assembling a roster with those exceptions. However, it'll all be for naught if he doesn't figure out the OL asap.

W said:

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ultimately the problem with the o-line...

it's preventing the Texans from making a legitimate evaluation of Stroud in regard to a second contract

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It will be clear this or next year prior to doing anything crazy.

I was busy last weekend. Why did Kirk not play?

Hamstring issue I believe

LB12Diamond said:

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W said:

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ultimately the problem with the o-line...

it's preventing the Texans from making a legitimate evaluation of Stroud in regard to a second contract

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It will be clear this or next year prior to doing anything crazy.

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I'm curious how Caserio is going to handle the Stroud and WAJ extensions since they are both eligible for extensions after this season. It's pretty clear what WAJ is so it's a bit easier to calculate his contract than Stroud's. Just looking at Over The Cap edge rushers there's only 3 at or over $40MM/year which are Parsons, Watt, and Garrett but at no. 4 is Hunter at $35.6MM/season. I'm guessing he gets around Hunter's number but has more guaranteed money because Hunter is 31. Regardless of what happens with Stroud the WAJ extension gets done next offseason.

When I initially started this I thought QB was going to be trickier because of the sheer amount of money involved, but I actually don't think that's true. If Trevor Lawrence is getting $55MM/season then Stroud is getting at least that figure, also making $55MM/season are Burrow, Allen, and Love. Lawrence and the Jags won the AFC South and a playoff game the season before Stroud was drafted and I don't see how Houston comes to an agreement for less money than Trevor Lawrence is making in the same division. He might not be on the level of Burrow or Allen but there's zero chance Houston pays Stroud less than Lawrence. Lawrence getting $142MM guaranteed makes no sense to me though, that might be the only tricky part is agreeing on the guaranteed number.

I meant to put Miles > 14 sacks and clicked the wrong one, So I will add

Miles Garret> 14 sacks. So at least I will get one right. besides Cowboys suck LOL

W said:

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the worst thing a franchise can do is give a second contract to an average or slightly above average QB

and there are many, many, many examples (past and present) of this. (Lawrence, Dak, Kyler, et al...)

it keeps a franchise stuck in "good" but never "great"

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And just when I was finally able to forget about Matt Schaub, you bring this up.

The only thing that makes me feel somewhat better about CJ if we don't extend is it's not like we're looking back at some superstar QB we took him over.

Put me in the no camp at the moment, for the reasons you stated.

Mike Evans had 51 yards. receiving, just a little below the average he needs to get to 1000. He now needs to average about 60 a game to get there. Definitely do able.

OPAG said:

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Mike Evans had 51 yards. receiving, just a little below the average he needs to get to 1000. He now needs to average about 60 a game to get there. Definitely do able.

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Definitely, I should have included that. I'll get you guys squares updated in the next 24 hours. I have a huge project due tomorrow morning that I sort of forgot about that I need to get done first

W said:

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the worst thing a franchise can do is give a second contract to an average or slightly above average QB

and there are many, many, many examples (past and present) of this. (Lawrence, Dak, Kyler, et al...)

it keeps a franchise stuck in "good" but never "great"

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Counter argument if your team is bad for too long they cant just flip a switch and win.
Star players only go to bad teams if they get above market value. So unless you hit the draft lottery 6-8 times in 2 years you will have big holes on your roster.
It isnt going to be easy to get an elite WR, top RB, good TE without a good QB. Without those pieces you wont have a great team ever.

texagbeliever said:

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W said:

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the worst thing a franchise can do is give a second contract to an average or slightly above average QB

and there are many, many, many examples (past and present) of this. (Lawrence, Dak, Kyler, et al...)

it keeps a franchise stuck in "good" but never "great"

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Counter argument if your team is bad for too long they cant just flip a switch and win.
Star players only go to bad teams if they get above market value. So unless you hit the draft lottery 6-8 times in 2 years you will have big holes on your roster.
It isnt going to be easy to get an elite WR, top RB, good TE without a good QB. Without those pieces you wont have a great team ever.

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I think the point he is making is based on what you want. If you want a team to compete with championships, you absolutely cannot hang on to "good" and have to have "great". If your goal is to hover around 8 wins and maybe win a playoff game every year/other year, then you can hang on to good.

In the past 10 years, only the Eagles have won a championship without having a "great" QB. Unless we can load every position like they have, which is very hard, I agree if CJ is not the guy its best to cut bait quickly.

This needs to be carefully done because I do think the NFL is going by the way of the NBA and we've seen locally that if you restart the QB position, be prepared for a flood of trade requests.

Week 1 is a liar. Sometimes lies are a version of the truth but they are still lies. Stay tuned...

And... CJ is not going anywhere. Not sure what the number will be but the check will have Cals signature on it.

I understand that we don't want to make a huge financial commitment to a "meh" quarterback. I don't believe CJ is a "meh" quarterback. He was amazing as a rookie. He took a step back last season, but who wouldn't with that offensive line? Unless CJ regresses again this season, Cal will cut that check and nobody should have any problem with it at all.

Some of you jump to conclusions so fast after really small sample sizes.

Also if your offensive line is awful your QB will be awful. To add to your points with stats.
Which player was worse week 1:
14 of 23 for 113 yards and 1 TD.
19 of 27 for 188 yards and 1 INT. 5 rushes for 32 yds.

Option A has arguably the best WR tandem in the NFL and top tier RB.

Yes, and patience is the key. This year the OL is a bandaid. I think next year will be more aligned with their vision of how the OL should be (Ersery, Andrews, etc.) plus a draft pick or so.

more examples...

Andy Dalton with the Bengals

Derek Carr with the Raiders

had some very good years but never reached the elite level

The reality is that Houston can sell tickets by being "good", at least much more easily than being awful. Being good keeps the money flowing in. They can always quell annual interest with a marquis signing of a player or coach.

I think the Texans' brass learned this once Deshaun bounced and they were unwatchable the next 3 years.

W said:

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more examples...

Andy Dalton with the Bengals

Derek Carr with the Raiders

had some very good years but never reached the elite level

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Point taken, but CJ has more physical ability than either of those guys.

Texan_Aggie said:

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The reality is that Houston can sell tickets by being "good", at least much more easily than being awful. Being good keeps the money flowing in. They can always quell annual interest with a marquis signing of a player or coach.

I think the Texans' brass learned this once Deshaun bounced and they were unwatchable the next 3 years.

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I take this as "all Cal wants to do is win enough to sell tickets." This is all Drayton McClane ever cared about...have a few marquee stars and make a playoff run every year, but let your farm system go to hell and fill in the roster with "has beens" or journeymen and go sell some souvenirs.

Maybe Cal is that way, but I doubt it. I really don't think Caserio or Ryans is wired that way, either.