Remember those halcyon days when ripping Bill O'Brien for giving away early draft picks for players was the worst of Houston's issues? O'Brien has been fired, but things have managed to get infinitely worse. Worse even than a franchise quarterback demanding a trade.
Today that franchise quarterback, Deshaun Watson, is facing allegations of sexual misconduct from roughly a dozen women (the number keeps changing, but it's a lot). It's the kind of thing that at a minimum might lead to a league suspension, although we'll need to see it play out over the next few weeks and months. It might also scare some teams away from acquiring him (not all, I suspect, but some), though it might also change Houston's thus far reluctance to trade him. That relationship is over, and it's obviously reached a point where his value isn't increasing. Time to sell medium and move on.
Setting aside the Watson drama, difficult though that may be, it's been a helluva offseason for the Texans. Let's look at the timeline.
Hired David Culley as head coach. Culley was wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator for the Ravens the last two seasons. That in itself raises some concerns, but even if those things were strengths with the Ravens last season (they weren't), he was not the offensive coordinator. He hasn't been an offensive coordinator at the NFL level. Virtually all of his experience over the past 20 years is as a wide receivers coach. Unfortunate that Houston has dumped two of its three best wide receivers, DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller, the last two offseasons, but at least they have Brandin Cooks. This is not to say Culley isn't deserving of a shot, certainly there have been many head coaching hires with even less experience. But NFL head coach is quite a jump him, and he's not taking over a roster brimming with top talent. Which brings us to the team's moves of late.
Released J.J. Watt. The face of the franchise for most of the past decade, Watt quickly signed for good money with Arizona. Seems like he maybe could have brought a draft pick in return. I guess they were doing him a solid by letting him pick his own team. They maybe could have done that without releasing him, though.
Signed Mark Ingram. Ingram is 31 and was a healthy scratch down the stretch for the Ravens. As a backup running back, he makes sense on a contending roster. Which Houston won't have this year.
Moving on to moves made since the start of free agency.
Signed Tyrod Taylor. Signing Taylor is a hint that Houston is willing to trade Watson, since it's basically backup money but worth "up to" $12.5 million. Taylor will one day be the answer to an interesting trivia question regarding the predecessor of Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield and Justin Herbert. And whoever Houston's next quarterback is.
Signed LB Joe Thomas. Thomas turns 30 in May and has started 14 games for Green Bay and Dallas over the past seven seasons.
Signed LB Kevin Pierre-Louis. Pierre-Louis also turns 30 this year, also entered the league in 2014, and has started 15 career games. This will be his sixth team in six years.
Signed WR Chris Moore. Moore was a bottom-of-the-roster receiver for Baltimore in recent years, so presumably Culley endorsed this signing. On occasion a couple of years ago Moore would make a play or two that had us mention him in the Weekly; something along the lines of "If you're in an ultra-deep league and need a warm body with six teams on bye..." Moore has caught 3 passes since 2018.
Signed DE Derek Rivers. Rivers has mostly played special teams the past three seasons.
Signed CB Terrance Mitchell. Mitchell is yet another player who entered the league in 2014 and has bounced around some. But he started every game for a Browns team that made the playoffs last year, so this looks like one of Houston's better signings. Secondary was not a strength for Cleveland last year, of course. But at least it's a player with starting experience, which is better than Houston's other defensive signings.
Traded for TE Ryan Izzo. I sincerely hope Houston didn't give up too much for a player who had zero chance of making New England's roster this year, given the team's additions of Hunter Henry, Jonnu Smith, and two 3rd-rounders in 2020. Houston cut Darren Fells the same day. Izzo is cheaper. Not a player you should need to trade for.
Traded for QB Ryan Finley. Again, whatever Houston gave up for Finley is probably too much, but it's more fuel for the idea that Watson will eventually be moved, with Taylor and Finley and ideally some quarterback they draft with a pick they trade Watson for on the roster. Or maybe they really like the veteran they could get from either the Broncos or Panthers, Drew Lock or Teddy Bridgewater, if they trade them Watson.
Signed WR Donte Moncrief. Moncrief had his moments for the Colts way back when. He's flopped hard since, catching 5 passes (on 17 targets) in 14 games the last two years.
Signed WR Alex Erickson. Well, Ryan Finley will see a friendly face in the locker room, at least.
Signed LB Christian Kirksey. Houston really, really likes the 2014 NFL Draft. Kirksey was a third-rounder with Cleveland that year and had some very productive seasons for them. But he quickly washed out in Green Bay and has averaged just 7 games over the past three years.
Traded for Marcus Cannon. Cannon is a good tackle, who opted out of last season. New England had apparently moved on, but was able to coax Houston into swapping a fourth-round pick for a fifth-rounder, plus another exchange of picks. I can't find a lot of fault with this move, beyond the fact that Houston giving up a fourth is questionable.
Signed Phillip Lindsay. On this one, I can only assume Lindsay wanted to stay sort of close to home (he's from Colorado) after being released by Denver. Lindsay becoming available is exactly why you don't sign 31-year-old Mark Ingram at the outset of free agency, because maybe you'll stumble upon a deal with a younger back with more upside. Houston doesn't have much, but they currently have three veteran running backs with considerable starting experience under contract for 2021.
I'm leaving out some other transactions involving punters and other veteran backup, special-teams types, but I think you get the idea.
Perhaps the NFL Draft will help the Texans get their roster sorted out? After the Cannon trade, Houston has two picks in the top 140: No. 67, and No. 109. They'll rectify that once they cave and deal Watson, but that will of course create a massive hole to fill.
Houston fans (anyone?) can take solace in the fact that other teams have hit rock bottom and crawled their way back to relevance. The Browns, the Dolphins, and maybe the Jaguars are on that track. Things get better.
But right now, this looks like a terrible roster with little hope of getting better anytime soon. Gonna be a tough 2021.
--Andy Richardson