The Houston Texans were poised to defend their AFC South title or take the next step in the playoffs in 2020.
Instead, the two-time division champions started 0-4, fired their coach and general manager, and faded to a 4-12, a virtual impossibility given they had a franchise quarterback performing at an elite level the entire season.
Deshaun Watson spent time with the Houston media on Jan. 4, the day after the Texans’ 41-38 loss to the Tennessee Titans on a last-second field goal. The three-time Pro Bowler detailed what needed to change in Houston in order for the organization to return to battling for playoff positioning, not looking forward to the offseason.
“I mean, we just need a whole culture shift,” Watson said. “We just need new energy. We need discipline, we need structure, we need a leader so we can follow that leader as players. That’s what we need. We’ve got to have the love of not just the game of football because that’s what we do, but the love for people and the people in this organization. We’ve all got to be on the same page.”
Evidently, chairman and CEO Cal McNair wasn’t on the same page as his franchise quarterback. Following the hiring of New England Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio as the Texans’ new general manager, Watson posted a cryptic tweet and reportedly hasn’t taken the Texans’ calls, albeit he has been on vacation.
The hiring of Caserio was unto itself another example of the organization not being on the same page. Korn Ferry presented McNair with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Omar Khan and ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Louis Riddick as the finalists from their many months of evaluation. Instead, McNair goes with Caserio, a buddy of Jack Easterby’s back in New England, and also a general manager candidate the Texans tried to pursue in June of 2019.
Though Watson was talking about the situation surrounding the Texans as of the first day of the offseason, before Caserio was ever introduced on Jan. 8, the former 2017 first-round pick’s assessment fits the organization 11 days later.
“There’s too many different minds, too many different ideas and too many people who think they have this power and it’s not like that,” said Watson. “We need someone that stands tall and this is who we’re following and this is the way it goes, like I said yesterday after the game, and we’re going to do it this way to win.”
