Houston Texans: What the Brian Cushing hire is setting the stage for

The Houston Texans have decided to add Brian Cushing, one of the franchise’s longest-tenured players to their coaching staff. Possible effect? Let’s look.

The Houston Texans are getting themselves into position to come out in 2019 with guns a-blazing as the off season is well underway. Important decisions will have to be made in regard to how they’ll approach free agency as well as the draft. It will be interesting to see how they’ll back-fill the open positions on this roster as they march to training camp within the next five months or so.

Jadeveon Clowney and Kareem Jackson will headline the names of unrestricted free agents the Houston Texans will have to make a decision on within the next month.

I’m hopeful that the Houston Texans invest in a offensive tackle early in the draft because it’s honestly the weakest position on the offensive line currently. Now Brian Gaine will never tell you that he’s going to draft based on need but if the team goes that way in the draft, we’ll know how dire things were at that position.

But any way, the latest news of Brian Cushing being added to the strength and conditioning staff as well as the defense doesn’t come as too much of a surprise.

The man is a football-lifer and I’m sure he was getting bored out of his mind not being able to put on a uniform week in and out during the season. His routine was vastly interrupted and now he’ll get that back by being on the coaching staff.

I know we’re all tying the “strength and conditioning” part of his title with the phrase “PED

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suspension” with some puzzling stigma but I think he’s learned from his mistakes. Finally. The former Defensive Rookie of the Year was suspended 10 games in the 2017 season for that exact infraction and got popped for four games after his rookie season in 2010 as well.

Although I never condone cheating of any kind — the first violation was a mistake but I understand the second time around. He was aging and he needed an edge. He want to do whatever it took to ensure that he had it so that he’d have the privilege of donning the uniform as long as he possibly could. His replacement — i.e. Benardrick McKinney — had already arrived and it was time for the transition to take place. He wanted to table the date of his demise as long as possible.

Subsequently, he was released before the start of this past season and did not get an opportunity to latch onto another team.

Nonetheless, Cushing was well-respected in the locker room in his nine seasons with the Houston Texans and his fiery demeanor will be a valuable asset into motivating the players he’ll be coaching. He already exuded leadership by being the designated linebacker wearing the headset directly connected to the coaches to call the plays — McKinney holds that title now — so the man knows what he’s doing.

I could honestly see him working his way up the coaching ranks. Who knows? He could be leading a team of his own someday but I think his skill set is best suited to be a coordinator at what he does best — defense. I could see that for him in the not too distant future.

Cushing, 32, is the franchise’s all-time leader in tackles with a sterling 664 of those to his credit. He also had 42 tackles-for-loss, 13.5 sacks, eight picks, 30 passes defended, 57 quarterback hits, nine forced fumbles and one safety to his credit.

Next. Three reasons why the team should go for it all in 2019. dark

With those numbers, there’s no doubt that Cushing will be a lock for the Texans‘ Ring of Honor and we’ll probably hear of this announcement sometime over the next few seasons.

We’ll have to see how this coaching experiment goes.

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