It’s Time For Bill O’Brien To Shake Things Up

Headed into the Texans bye week, one of the most disappointing things about this season has been the coaching staff. Texans fans had long since grown tired of Gary Kubiak’s play calling and ultra-conservative style. What we all hoped for was to see more innovation, players actually getting better at certain positions, “coached-up” as they like to say. We have not seen that this season from this coaching staff, outside of a few young players in the secondary, and if the intent was to be more innovative on offense, they are being limited by the spotty quarterback play.

On the offensive side of the ball it’s been about as vanilla as an offense can be, and if not for Arian Foster they might be challenging for the worst offense in the league. Fans understood than Bill O’Brien did not feel enough confidence in any quarterback in the draft to hitch his job future to one of them and was in effect buying himself some time to build.

But truth be told, in this league on teams not owned by Bob McNair, most coaches only get 2 years of futility before they are dismissed, no matter what their starting point was. Who knows what he will get from McNair. But fans have to hope that it’s not the blind optimism that we’ve seen in the past from McNair after all the years of disappointments and the short lived pinnacle reaching the playoffs in 2 years only to come crashing back to earth with a giant 2-14 thud in 2013.

O’Brien needs to start showing why he was given this job. His players need to show improvement, if not wins. O’Brien (or Rick Smith’s) draft picks should be producing more for where they were drafted. Did they really draft a 2nd string blocking TE at the top of the 3rd round (C.J. Fiedorowicz) where you should be drafting real contributors and certainly starters?

How about at the top of the 2nd round, selecting an offensive lineman (Xavier Su’a-Filo) that can’t seem to crack the starting lineup behind a guard (Ben Jones) that has been over his head all season and is in reality just a center as he was drafted as and played at Georgia. Jones is currently the 56th ranked offensive guard among starters, according to Pro Football Focus. There are 32 teams and 2 starting guards per team, you do the math.

Can a guard that was touted as possibly the best guard in the draft really be worse, once he’s given a chance to adjust on the field?

Sep 7, 2014; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans quarterback

Ryan Mallett

(15) warms up before a game against the Washington Redskins at NRG Stadium. The Texans defeated the Redskins 17-6. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Bill O’Brien had also better start finding out what he has in Ryan Mallett and Tom Savage so that they know the level of desperation of going to get a quarterback in the 2015 draft. As bad as the Texans have looked at times this season, there is still enough talent on this team to make the playoffs and win a game, IF they have a solid answer at quarterback.

The reality is we all know the answer is not Fitzpatrick. We also know that even if this team somehow finds a way to stumble into the playoffs, in the long run will that really matter if we are still looking for a quarterback? No, there would still be a gaping hole at QB and would only tease and trick the casual fans into believing the Texans are better than they really are at this point. This season, in reality, was not about making the playoffs. It was about turning the page on the 2-14 season, changing the coaching staff and beginning to tweak the roster to fit what they want to do.

That’s not going to happen in one season, so we knew going in this would take at least 2 drafts to get the ship completely turned around. But that’s not going to happen if they whiffed on draft picks in the 2nd and 3rd rounds again, so you would like to see some progress. What we expected to see was a change in play calling and style, a defense that keeps the team in games and an offensive line that begins to gel as Su’a-Filo and Brandon Brooks improve and become well above average guards to once again make the offensive line one of the strengths of this team. And in the meantime we hoped to see some young players step up and improve.

Have we seen those things so far?

Aug 16, 2014; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans guard Xavier Su

The offensive line has talent, Pro-Bowlers and a couple reasonably high draft picks, yet they are not even playing as well as they did under Kubiak. Some analysis needs to be done with this position group. Is it scheme? Is it scheme fit? Is it coaching? Likely a bit of all, but if it’s scheme fit, they better adjust the scheme because this team has too much talent, picks and dollars already tied up into this group. It’s not likely that they get more help in the coming draft outside of perhaps a 4th rounder that can improve the depth and eventually push Derek Newton at right tackle.

Defensively, except for J.J. Watt and Whitney Merclius, the front 7 looks woefully undermanned and under talented. The linebackers outside of Mercilus and not counting Clowney, haven’t played above “replacement level” all season. In other words if you replaced them all tomorrow with players cut or on practice squads of other teams you wouldn’t likely even notice a difference.

Two things can make a significant difference here; Clowney getting back and staying on the field and Brian Cushing getting back to where he was. But this organization can no longer stand pat and rely on rail thin depth at this position. There is likely not a lot they can do about it now, but a legit 2nd inside linebacker needs to be a priority in the coming draft and perhaps by next season Cushing will be all the way back.

The secondary has actually been respectable given that they’ve been under a great deal of pressure to stop the run when the front-7 can’t and also defend receivers downfield for too long with the inconsistent pass rush. Some of the young players here have showed some promise. The Texans will have tough calls on starting corners Kareem Jackson (free agent) and Johnathon Joseph (severely overpaid) in the offseason. But at least for now they’ve been forced to develop some young players and A.J. Bouye, Andre Hal and Daryl Morris have showed some promise.

As far as the change in culture, sure there has been a change. “One team”, being a “good teammate” and all that jazz have been the slogans and the go-to answers to reporters. Has it made a difference on the field? Did this team have a problem in the locker room previously? The answer to both is, NO.

This team had some frustration among the veterans because the previous regime was willing to stick with their guys until the wheels came off. So… when the wheels came off, it careened into a bridge embankment. So yes, the Texans needed to turn the page but the locker room and team culture among the players was not the problem.

Sometimes taking away some of the so called individualisms like introductions to start the game can lead to a more subdued crowd. The crowd at NRG Stadium long since has been a strength for this team and has led to some games where it was a huge home field advantage. But Bill O’Brien’s background in the NFL is with the Patriots and Bill Belichick and likely he learned that there. Problem is, a little individualism likely makes no difference in New England either. What does make a difference? A quarterback like Tom Brady and Bill Belichick has had relatively little success in the NFL as a head coach without him.