for him in Houston.
One of the few teams in the AFC that
aren't real contenders is the Houston Texans.
Here's Lovie Smith at the start of the Houston Texans offseason
program talking about Davis Mills as the quarterback of
the franchise.
You look at all of my comments about Davis and I am a believer
and him, and what he's going to do, eventually got to do it all
on the football field, consistently where everybody
loves them every snap and all of that, but before a guy has
played enough to do all of that is just he shows up every day.
Availability. He is available and he has recruited other
players to come here. And what the guys say. I'm doing is just
working.
And when I say, I believe in him help Hamilton
second year in the system, all of these things.
And if she just go back and look at the plays that he made
throwing the ball downfield last year or so many good
things that he did.
And that says a rookie
that Improvement that you see from year one to year two
is normally, you know, a big Improvement and that's what
we're going to get from him.
Look, I think that the Texans understand that they're not
going to be competitive this year.
Why go out and swing for the fences on a quarterback. That's
not going to make the team dramatically different. I mean,
they'll be competitive in individual games. But
if they're even in remotely the conversation for a playoff
appearance. That's a huge one. Yeah. Be shopping anybody's
expecting. Right?
So, you know, I think that and I said this yesterday on PFT
p.m. It's a very unique situation in Houston because As
the owner seems to not be
caught up in the idea that we got to turn this around right now.
That's basically
under the full and complete spell of Jack Easter. Be
who has Nick kiss, Arrow there and kiss arrows. Got
the flexibility and they may have another head coach by the time.
They actually start
their push toward
being a perennial Contender, but
I just I don't think that
competing for division titles and championships is one of
the big Teas right now for the Texans, they kind of understand
who they are and where they are. And
now is the time to let Davis Mills. Be the quarterback while
they figure out what this team is going to be moving forward
if that makes any sense. Yeah, I think so and they're in it
for the long haul or the Long play right now. They're not
trying to make a quick fix and oh we got to be, you know
competitive right now.
We kind of realized that last year. It seems like yes,
they're going to let Nick caesarea. You
have some time to build the roster exactly the way they want it
and Dave. Smells I understand them first off
and I'll where they're drafting number 4 in the draft. I don't
think this is a year. You want to take one of these
quarterbacks and number four. I don't think any of them are
worthy of that pick. Certainly not. And
you know, also you got a quarterback that showed promise
last year and Davis Mills. I mean, he's a guy that I don't
think from what he showed you. Give it a chance unless
something just absolutely just knocked
you in the face where you're like, oh my gosh, this
quarterbacks available. We're gonna take him. He's definitely
A better and awesome or whatever.
Now, Davis Mills. Yes. As a rookie, especially after he got
bench and then came back in for that. Second stint was
a different player. Took care of the ball for the most part
started. Making some throws where you went. Oh, wow. Okay,
so I understand them staying the course with him and you
know, they need to they're going to try to evaluate this
a little bit more. Maybe they got a guy here, you know, he seems
smart. I've dog coming out of Stanford, you know, he was
a kind of a natural at the position
but It's similar and I think even on a maybe a lesser scale
at least in my opinion as we sit here right now and what we
just talked about with Kirk Cousins. This is a system guy
in my opinion. And his arms not even as good as Kirk Cousins to
wear that. That's where it's a little different. I don't know
if he's ever going to be a guy that's going to make
game-changing throws or game changing plays.
They'll when things are
a little off kilter
and that's the part. I need to see a little bit more
and but but hey, Nick caesarea that group up there. I can
understand them liking them and love you, son. The defensive
coach the guy's smart, takes care of the ball. I get it.
This gets back to what we were talking about earlier in
the program, when it comes to ownership of teams. You either
have enough money to go buy a team, or you are in the right
place from the perspective of the reading of the will
to inherit the team
Cal. McNair inherited the team from his father and the team
has not been great in the past few years, especially the last
two years, eight combined wins in 2020 and 2021.
They had six playoff appearances in nine Seasons.
Never got farther than the Vision around four losses
in the divisional. Round of the playoffs in 2011, 2012, 2016
and 2019. They lost a couple of times in the Wild Card round
and
I guess you have to ask yourself if your Cal McNair.
Like if we're not even you get to the AFC Championship game,
like I mean, what's our, what's really our priority and go
like? And I were talking about this yesterday
for a lot of owners is just make as much money as you can.
And I suspect that most organizations have a secret
spreadsheet, somewhere that shows their profitability in
the years when they get to the playoffs and have spent
the money necessary to be a playoff team
and the years where they don't get to the playoffs and they
haven't spent the money, but they're still making a crapload
of it.
There's probably a lot of teams out there that make more raw
profit in the Years where they're not very good.
I wouldn't be surprised by that. I wouldn't, you know,
especially for those teams every now and then that, you
know, just out of nowhere, make that huge push of,
you know, cash and spend.
Okay, we flip things around for,
you know, a year or two, but we don't really know how to,
you know, bring guys up the ranks as far as developing or
fill in holes through free agency. So now we're back to
not being good and
hey well, Yeah, we realized. Yeah, we do make money when
we're not that good. I wouldn't be shocked by that at all.
I wouldn't
Houston's in the
and a state of flux as it looks right now. Definitely.
And it seems like they're going to kind of build their team
evaluate, the guy. They got a quarterback. They think he's
got a chance. And then they'll say, and if that doesn't work
out, I would, you know, they're going to be
firmly in that quarterback draft or big free agent
quarterback next year conversation over under on
the number of years. Lovie Smith serves as the head coach of
the Texans. Two-and-a-half
is the over under which side of you take. I mean, as it looks
the way you know. Again,
I like Lovie Smith.
I'm not talking about what I think of him. I think it'll be
less than that. I do. I don't know. This just seems again. It
was fishy with how it all came up. Lovie Smith was not in
the finalists for the job
and all the sudden the Flores thing happened and it's like,
oh crap. We got an issue here. Hey, Lovie Smith, your black.
Let's start interviewing you and see. I mean, that's what
It seems like, I mean, he certainly qualified for
the job. I know that
but it just it seemed like it was a little bit of a darted
aboard to, you know,
avert, you know, a major disaster through their eyes in
the NFL.
I think two teams moved and dramatically different
directions at head coach because the Brian Flores
lawsuit one as we have previously discussed and
dolphins fans and Buccaneers fans and Saints fans don't want
to accept Sean, Payton
was the target to be the head coach of the dolphins.
For the Flores lawsuit and in Houston,
I think if the Flores lawsuit has been filed Josh McCown as
the head coach of that team right now. I really think that
and I think if it had come down to Flores
versus McCown as the finalists without the Flores lawsuit,
McCown gets the job. Even in
a staredown with a guy who's been an NFL head coach for
three years, an assistant coach for a generation before that
Josh, McCown. No coaching. Experience the college or NFL
level. I think they would have hired
Josh McCown. If it came down to him and Flores, and it did come
down to him and for us, and what did they do? They punted.
They went and got Lovie, Smith and Lonnie Smith. I think
I guess Smith is said, well, you know, I was a candidate all
along. Well, nobody bothered to tell the media that
nobody bothered to leak that when Nick caesarea was telling,
whoever who the finalists were Lovie, Smith name wasn't on
the list know
and and and if they got it wrong, that would have been the time
for them to say.
Oh wait, there's not
A finalist is for make sure, let me Smith's name is on that list
agreed. There was nothing on anybody's radar that I know of
talking in the NFL that Lovie Smith was going to be
the guy or at the Forefront of their discussion. So, the head
coach.
I mean, it seems like it took a total
right hand. Turn left hand. Turn, whatever the hell you
want to talk about. Right when the Flores decision happened
and lawsuit happened. And that's where things. Yeah,
went a different route, but
that's I don't know. Mike. What do you think?
You would two-and-a-half over-under. What are you taking
their under? Yeah. Under I know unless unless unless
the lingering pressure of the Flores lawsuit.
And we don't know how long it's going to take to resolve,
right? Cuz here's the here's the reality. Here's reality
Lovie Smith was in on the tank in Tampa Bay and to his credit
when he was fired. He never stood up and said, hey, they
tanked in that week, 17 game in 2014 against the Saints.
They told me to take out half the starters
so that we'd lose that game. So we get Jameis Winston, but
I look at it this way, if they aren't, they are careful
and they kick Lovie Smith to the curb and Lovie Smith.
Has an epiphany as to what really happened.
He may be deluding himself for now
about what really happened and how he got that job.
You kick him out of that job after a couple of years
and he may say, you know what
those bastards,
sorry all due respect those people
they
hired me just to because they couldn't hire the guy. They
wanted a higher in Josh McCown
because the Flores lawsuit
they they you know, and then the next thing you know, you
got Lovie Smith.
In the court, and I'm not saying that in a derisive way.
I'm saying that in a he'd have every right to
he'd have every right to
if they if they
you know, if this scheme is exposed that his race was
a factor in him being hired because of the Brian Flores
litigation
and then they turn around and fire him and not give them
a real chance. Treat him like a bridge coach like Steve Wilkes
is complaining of being
I think that for as long as you know what, I'm going to go
over. Over now,
you're going to go this long because I don't think the floor
is litigation is going to be gone quickly.
And as long as that case is around.
I think the Texans would be very wise to continue to
perpetuate. The ruse
that Lovie Smith was the guy they were going to hire all
along and I think you and I both can can
justifiably develop an opinion
that they wouldn't have hired Lovie Smith, but for the brawn
Flores lawsuit, yeah, I don't know. I mean, they're blast to
hires both seem like a Choose. I mean it David Kali seemed
like it was a
one-year hold over for something else type of move
and this is well,
but at the same time they're going to be able to argue and
go. Hey, we hired two African-American head coaches
and which is you know, of course a bunch of BS. If there
was no real commitment to the long-term future there
and that's that's the problem.
I don't think so. I don't think the Texans even cares.
Sometimes, I'm not sure, I think Nick caesarea. I don't
want to say that about him. I'm not sure ownership really cares
about how they look to the rest of the
World, I don't know. That would be my
assessment. Well, but if that's the case, he would hire Josh
McCown. Well, okay. That's a good point. I don't know what
to say that. I don't know what to say there. You're right.
You're right. I don't have a comeback for that.
But really, if they truly didn't care. Yeah, they would
have hired Josh. McCown. I think
/ kind of know that the league, got it. Alright, so see judging
these team. Yeah, that's what I would do. Something that would
be for the greater good and you know, if Houston ends up
getting a Super Bowl at some point down the road.
There's not going to be any tracks. That would lead it back to
Cow McNair, taking one for the team
taking one for the shield,
being the shield of the shield
and hiring Lovie Smith at a time
when he wanted to hire Josh McCown. That's what makes
and I know we're way off track at this point, but you know
what? No one's tried to rein this in yet. So we'll keep
going. That's what makes the litigation fascinating. If it
plays out in a traditional
Court through traditional
Discovery with the traditional processes of tracking down,
text messages,
emails
and Grilling people under oath because
people,
when they're in situations like this, yeah, they're careful,
but they're never as care. Was they need to be when things are
being reduced to some form of writing?
There's always going to be
that one document.
That one thing
that you find, that one thing that the lawyers are tempted to
bury.
And and in today's
digital environment. It's impossible to shred a document
and act like it. Never existed.
There's going to be a digital footprint that one too. Text
message that one email, where
you let your guard down, just enough
and you said something that haunts you in the litigation. So
that's why I hope this plays out in court because
any other effort,
we're not going to have the benefit of seeing exactly what
the Texans did and why they did it, but I suspect that
the lawyers will be able as they delve into this because now
they're a defendant because Brian Flores is arguing. He
wasn't hired in retaliation for his lawsuit
and I don't agree with that. They would hire Josh McCown,
but for the Suit, but but they, they're going to have
the license to dig around
in all the communications
and they're going to be able to talk to Nick Castillo
and cow McNair and Jack Easter be, and Janice McNair who was
in on some of these interviews
and they're going to be able
to,
I may be getting the name wrong, but regarding okay, but,
um, but I think it's Hannah McNair. It's mrs. McNair. When
in doubt just say, mrs. Yes, very, very easy. Yes, but
the point is this.
There they are. They are tied to this now and they're going
to be spending a lot of time. If this stays in court, they're
going to spending a lot of time
trying to trying to sell to the lawyers who are coming after
them. Very aggressively
that that what they did is real
and not some ruse aimed at helping the NFL,
take some of the heat out of a very hot kitchen.
Yeah. I know, that's where
that's where I, you know, I go back to what I said a few.
I don't think they really care. I think they, yes, maybe took one
for the team that way, you know, I don't think they're
going to be
scared. To pull the trigger. If things don't go this well this
year and there's a coach out there who they like and he's
white.
I think they'll make the move and get rid of Lovie, Smith to
I do. And then the other thing, Mike, I want to just say
because we're, you know, taking our guesses or whatever else.
Do you really think it's going to stay in the court.
Do you really think there's a chance this plays out there
the way it should?
And again, I just feel like
I've been following the sport for a long, long time. The NFL
is going to win. This battle is going to go to arbitration. And
we're never going to hear any of this stuff. Never. Well,
I'm hopeful that it will
and I'm hopeful that
there's enough in the law can be very malleable
and I'm hopeful that there's enough precedent out there that
there's enough discretion out there that a judge looks at
what's happening in this case and takes a broader. Look at
what's happening with the NFL, even though that's stuff
technically isn't part of the case.
And a judge says, you know, what
maybe this is time
for this too. Play out in court and not
in an arbitration setting, that would be subject to appeals and
etcetera etcetera. But there's an old saying, bad facts, make
bad law. What that means is if you have a set of circumstances
where people say, man, this just isn't good
judges find a way
to bend the law toward making it right. Even if you're
technically
fracturing the legal principles that otherwise would apply
because you feel like
like
a just result in this case requires it playing out in
court, not being hidden away in arbitration. So we'll see. I'm
hopeful that it will play out.