Red Zone Play: Houston Texans Now a “Flatter Organization”

Despite recent shake-ups at Houston’s 610 Sports Radio (going to miss Mike Meltzer and hope he lands on his feet), the station is still considered the radio voice of the Houston Texans. So, it should come as no surprise that team owner/chairman Cal McNair was on 610 last night discussing the Texan’s new normal.

For those who missed the off-season front office hijinks, the Texans unceremoniously fired incumbent general manager Brian Gaine, failed to provide a definitive answer as to why (other than McNair’s “very clear statement”) which lent itself to rampant speculation, attempted to sign New England Patriots’ VP of Team Development Nick Caserio minutes after the Patriots ring ceremony, which apparently went over as well as the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, with New England filing tampering charges that are as inexplicable as the tuck rule.

Soon after the NFL version of Days of our Lives ended, Houston announced they would proceed with the 2019 season sans a general manager. The added twist to this is the generally perceived poor showing in free agency, the Jadeveon Clowney franchise tag situation leading to him holding out and other general tomfoolery many are characterizing as overall incompetence within the Texans front office.

Oh, and then there’s this piece about someone lobbing accusations that the Texans violated the Rooney Rule during their botched GM search... sigh...

So, like a President speaking to the White House Press Corps after the country stumbles into an internationally embarrassing incident, Cal McNair really needed to get out in front of all this and make some public statements to reassure his customers- err - fans that the product- err - team they were fielding in 2019 was still in good hands.

Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle discusses this and more, with choice quotes from Mr. McNair in a recent piece for the paper.

Cal McNair

We’ve been really busy working on [team management] this offseason. It’s a flatter organization with a faster management style. The organization is totally re-energized with a team-based approach and new leadership based on sub programs with each sub program being fully optimized as a goal.

I know it’s a lot, but it’s a lot of improvements and we can’t wait to get out of the office on the fields and get back to winning football games.

While a lot of the speculation from fans, bloggers and journalists alike can go so far right or left of reality it gets laughable at times, McNair still addressed some it the crazy talk as well.

It’s kind of funny I’ve heard on the radio that people are worried about how will people know who to contact for how to make a trade,” McNair said. “I promise you people will know who to contact to make a trade. It’s not like there’s thousands and thousands of people out there. There’s 31 other clubs, 32, including us. The guys know who to call and they have in the past.

They’ve called different guys in our organization. Someone will get called, if there’s an interest. We’ll handle that call. We’ll have a meeting to talk about extensions. We’ll get together as a group. We’ll make a plan and then we’ll go execute the plan. You’ll see that this year.

McNair then goes on to hype up a few members of the new Flat Earth Management Team (FEMT).

We’re really lucky to have Jack [Easterby] with us, He is executive vice president of team development, so his role is to do whatever it takes to make the organization grow and operate at its absolute peak performance.

Chris [Olsen] has been great for us for many years. He’s highly respected in the NFL and among the agents. His activities really won’t change that much, but he’ll have a little more leadership within the football admin. I look forward to working with Chris as I have in the past and will in the future.

With rookies having already reported to training camp and the vets coming in tomorrow, the news cycle will finally pick up and we’ll get a better look at just what the FEMT has managed to do in the wake of Gaine-Gate.

Safety Tashaun Gipson is most likely Houston’s best free agent addition this offseason, and a player that should pair with rising super star Justin Reid (who was recently hit by a drunk driver) to give the Texans a solid safety tandem.

Rookie offensive linemen Tytus Howard and Max Sharping will either be remembered as great picks or a great waste of draft capital and training camp is far too early to tell which way that will go, but keeping an eye on them is certainly a thing right now.

The true test of the FEMT will come when a player inevitably gets hurt in training camp or the pre-season. Or, in the event that running back D’Onta Foreman can’t return to form, despite claims to the contrary, or Jadeveon Clowney continues his holdout into the regular season. Houston didn’t do much of anything to bolster their running back corps or defensive line during the offseason, so one missing player from either group will certainly need to be addressed quickly.

At this point, all we can do is sit, wait and speculate how this will all turn out.

What do you think? Can the FEMT take the Texans to new heights of H-Town glory? Is this all a smoke screen to cover up a giant mess? With J.J. Watt and DeAndre Hopkins on the PUP list, should the FEMT already be making moves to bolster the roster? Give us your insights in the comments box.