The Houston Texans chose and their new head coach, nearly four months after they fired Bill O’Brien last October.
Now the problem for the team and the new head coach, David Culley, will be knowing who his quarterback will be when he starts next season.
DeShaun Watson has already formally requested his team exchange, less than 24 hours after Culley was named coach and a few weeks after he threatened to do so because, according to several versions, the club broke its promise to involve him in the selection process for the general manager.
The new coach certainly knew the responsibility he had to bear in accepting the job. He probably agreed without much to lose, but much to gain, whether the situation and rebuilding the team can be fixed with or without Watson.
At 65, Culley will become the oldest to debut as head coach in the NFL, after spending the last 26 seasons as a league assistant, including the last two in charge of receivers and game coordinator. by pass of the Baltimore Ravens.
If Watson was already surprised that the Texans appointed Nick Caserio general manager, the situation was even more baffling when he learned that the coordinator of an offensive that was the fourth worst in the NFL to happen, that of the Ravens, will be his new head coach.
Baltimore’s success on the offensive the last two seasons was by career … Watson is a passing quarterback, who can run but only as one more tool in his game, not as a main weapon.
He lived his best individual statistical season in 2020, although his team was a 4-12 failure, ending the reign of O’Brien, who was coach and general manager, and as a result of a series of very bad decisions from previous years.
Watson went through 4,823 yards, 33 touchdowns, 8.9 yards on average and just seven interceptions on a team that only won four games last season and switched to his best receiver, one of the best in the league, DeAndre Hopkins. to leave it just average receivers below.
“I’m sorry,” teammate JJ Watt told him as they left the field together after the final game of the season. “We wasted one of your years. I mean, we had to have 11 wins.”
The Texans need players on both sides of the ball, following the disaster that O’Brien left them as general manager.
The relationship with Watson seems to be so broken, that he officially asks for his change of team a few hours after the new coach was appointed and still does not address a word with the general manager or owner, Cal McNair.
For Culley, it won’t be at all comfortable working on a team either, the leader has shown his complete annoyance with the hiring process and was known to all who preferred Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieneimy as coach.
The Texans have to take advantage of Watson’s big moment, tossing his “Ave Maria” to exchange him for multiple high-school collegiate selections and experienced NFL players.
They have to do it now, because everything indicates that it will be another virtual season retreat.
The Texans have so far eight options in the next Draft, but towards the first or second round for O’Brien’s negotiations to get left tackle Laremy Tunsil and receiver Kenny Stills, who is no longer even on the computer.