Yesterday Dale Robertson wrote a column on Bob McNair to include quotes from the Houston Texans owner. I featured the article for the daily links post yesterday, and then published a Twitter interaction between myself and Jerome Solomon in response to my opinion about McNair. I was completely ready to move on from the issue to other abstract offseason topics besides the team ownership, but apparently Robertson's piece inspired more of a reaction than I realized. Below the jump is other people's take on McNair as well as the usual Texans related links.
Like I said, everyone has an opinion about the embattled owner who chose yesterday to speak. Alan Burge was angry and decided it's best for McNair not to speak to the media.
Paul Kuharsky was confused by some of McNair's reasoning that he used for the Texans' early struggles.
Lastly, Richard Justice is upset that McNair spoke of the Jauguars' and Panthers' early success and subsequent failings negatively. I know I said I wouldn't link to him anymore, but the reason I did is to point something out. The NFL decided after the aforementioned success of Jacksonville and Carolina that the expansion parameters made it too easy for the new NFL teams, so they made the rules much tougher for the expansion Browns and Texans. I think Bob may have been alluding to that, but if he was, he did not do a great job presenting that point. Overall, it's probably best that he step away from the media for a while.
One thing that screwed the Texans from the get-go was their first of two overall picks, David Carr. The second fared much better according to pretty much anyone, but Eli Kaberon believes Mario Williams is one of the better top defensive picks in the draft of all time. (H/T Eric a.k.a. Xetouh)
As for this year's draft, Daniel Charles discusses the possibility of Aldon Smith being the Texans first round pick this year. As Daniel points out, Smith is raw but possesses incredible athletic ability. I'll have more thoughts on this later.
Patrick from the Texans Tribune put a nice bow on his Texans-centric Senior Bowl coverage with a list of the top five prospects possible for Houston. While I might differ a smidge on the ranking, I think he has a pretty good feel for what players would be good for the Texans in 2011.
The first round of the draft gets the most attention, but the accumulation of lower-rated players who perform above expectations is what makes teams successful. Texans running backs coach Chick Harris was able to elevate the play of two such players Arian Foster and Vonta Leach to Pro Bowl levels in 2010, and the backfield tandem repaid the coach by taking him to Hawaii.
While it is a great honor to make it to the Pro Bowl, the game itself leaves something to be desired. Rivers McCown has an idea how to fix it that is certainly outside of conventional thought.