Poll: Should the Houston Texans Fire Nick Caserio?

Dec 7, 2022 - 4:00 PM

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According to the fine folks at ProFootballRumors, the NFL’s Jason LaCanfora is rumor-mongering that Houston Texans “ownership” is losing confidence in general manager Nick Caserio.

If you’ve spent any amount of time reading this blog, you’re well aware that the one ownership should lose confidence in is the person staring back at them from the mirror.

However, rumors be rumoring.

Jason LaCanfora via the Washington Post

There has been increasing chatter about the Houston Texans making more front-office changes after the season, and multiple executives I’ve spoken with believe GM Nick Caserio is not on nearly as solid footing as he was in the past. Longtime Caserio ally Jack Easterby, a former team chaplain in New England when Caserio was there who rose to become the most influential executive in Houston, was abruptly fired in October. The Texans are the NFL’s lone one-win team and are facing another looming head coaching decision; having Caserio fire Lovie Smith one year after also making David Culley a one-and-done seems untenable to some in the NFL agent and executive communities. Starting entirely from scratch might have better optics.

As happens all too often, people who don’t have a solid pulse on all things H-Town often gum flap in the national media about what will or will not happen in Houston sports.

At the moment, it would appear that Caserio was handed a flaming bag of dog poo and is now getting blamed for the smell of burning feces in the air.

While Ole Nick certainly hasn’t done a miraculous job turning this franchise around, he has made several positive moves. Additionally, it’s hard to know how much of the blame for David Culley and Lovie Smith should fall squarely on Caserio.

Culley was hired split seconds after Caserio, and the hire reeked of Jack Easterby.

ProFootballRumors

The Texans fired the executive who helped bring Caserio from Foxborough to Houston (Jack Easterby). Caserio and Smith had frozen out the unpopular executive during his final stretch with the franchise. But the Texans are slogging through their third straight dreadful season.

Smith was hired after the Texans found themselves mired in another power struggle between Easterby, owner Cal McNair, and Caserio that placed them squarely in the crosshairs of the Brian Flores vs the NFL lawsuits.

While the “best GM ever!” could have navigated these things to a far rosier outcome, Caserio didn’t totally crap the bed. Especially considering his handling of the Deshaun Watson mess he inherited.

ProFootballRumors

While this is looking like one of the longer rebuild efforts in recent memory, Caserio is months removed from collecting a historic compensation package for a quarterback (Deshaun Watson) amid what turned out to be a near-two-year layoff. The Texans became only the second team to nab three first-round picks for a veteran quarterback, following the Patriots’ 1976 haul for Jim Plunkett, and the team made four first- or second-round picks in this year’s draft.

The Davis Mills experiment appears to be a bust. However, it’s hard not to wonder how Mills would fare on a team with an actual competitive coaching staff. Between Culley’s surprise that rookies benefited from practice and Smith instructing the defense to play defensively, it’s a wonder Mills has managed to do anything positive at all.

And, that’s not on Caserio.

At this juncture, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to cut ties with Caserio just yet. Give him a full off-season and season without the inherited baggage, without the meddling of Grima Wormtongue and without the salary cap and draft anorexia the Texans are finally exiting.

Then, if the team is still floundering this time next year, cleaning house just might be in order.

What do you think?

Should the Houston Texans Fire Nick Caserio?

A few weeks back we polled you to see if Lovie Smith should get the awe. 65.6% said Yes. Now, let’s see how many think Caserio should join him.