The end of the 2010 regular season for the Texans was the most turbulent in team history. During Dom Capers' reign, the team improved its record every year after expansion until the horrid 2-14 record, which made it obvious to everyone there would be a regime change. Gary Kubiak seemed to be improving as well until this season, but 6-10 wasn't as much of a slam dunk for firing as 2-14, at least not when Bob McNair is your boss. Black Monday came and went, Kubiak and Rick Smith kept their jobs, and fans groaned. Now it's time to move on... past the jump.
Wade Phillips was officially introduced as the new defensive coordinator at a press conference yesterday. It's funny to see the different views people have of this:
The City of Dallas sees it as the irrelevant little brother picking through their table scraps.
John Hallam sees between the lines in not only Wade's presser but also Gary Kubiak's thoughts.
Some people took note that Wade confirmed Bill Kollar would be staying on as defensive line coach.
Alan Burge focused on the fact that it might take a while to get defensive assistants in place.
Part of moving onto the next season is talking about the draft. Since Rick Smith is staying on as general manager, our very own fearless leader took an analytical look at Smith's draft history. *Warning -- not for the easily depressed.*
Another way to look forward is to concentrate on potential free agents. Diehard Chris discusses three cornerbacks and a defensive tackle, while Jesse Rios looks at two of the same CBs and one different one. One CB in both posts is Nnamdi Asomugha, but John Hallam explains why you won't see Scrabble in Deep Steel Blue next season.
Arian Foster has decided that after capturing the regular season rushing title, he is going to move on by dancing the night away, which is alright by Rivers McCown.
A couple of writers at the Texans Tribune wrote interesting pieces about Bob McNair and what went wrong in 2010. One is about the desire of the owner to win, the other is a philosophical look at said problems.
I personally am done with the negative stuff about Kubiak, Smith and McNair. I don't mean to pick on the Tribune or their writers; they were just the best example for today of a phenomenon of Texans fans and bloggers constantly addressing the shortcomings of all three. I understood it when there was a chance Kubiak would (and probably should) be fired. I understood when we as fans were processing the fact that he wasn't fired. Now I'm personally just tired of it.
I'm not trying to convince you to think my way because in reality you probably don't care, but the decision to keep Kubiak and Smith has been made. It's not that I agree with that decision; I completely disagree. It's just that now I find the whole "everyone at the top is incompetent and we'll never win with them" rhetoric boring. I think we finally got a defensive coordinator hire right, and I'm excited about what that could mean. Just my opinion though, so take that for what it's worth.