When you have the head coach and general manager of your NFL team going to the podium on back to back days at the NFL Combine, you hope for two days worth of interesting nuggets, clear insight, and maybe even a chuckler two are in order. Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans delivered plenty fo great content on Tuesday, not surprisingly.
Wednesday, it was GM Nick Caserio’s turn, and even Caserio would be among the first to admit that he is not going to drop nearly as many bread crumbs in a press conference as his head coach. If you have twenty minutes of free time and want to watch Caserio’s entire session, here is the video:
In sifting through a lot of Caserio’s GM-speak, there were a few intriguing nuggets. Here are the ones that resonated with me:
One last media attempt to get something from Nick on Deshaun Watson
“Yeah, haven’t been able to keep track of all the moves, but anytime that you give up an asset, you’re getting assets in return, and what you do with those assets, it’s all about the decisions that you make. We’re fortunate that we’ve added players that have been able to help our team. Each year is going to be different, but that’s in the past, and where we are today we have a number of players that we’ve been able to acquire, that have helped our team. Hopefully that continues moving forward. But have a lot of respect for Cleveland, the organization. They have a good football team. They’ve won a lot of football games. Deshaun [Watson] is going to be a good player in this league for a long time, so we’re focused on the Houston Texans and what can we do to continue to build our team so we can put the best product out there on a weekly basis.”
The question that elicited that lengthy answer above was about improvements made to the team since trading Deshaun Watson. The mere mention of Watson was a worm on the end of a hook, with a hopeful fisherman (or woman) holding the pole hoping Caserio would say something noteworthy about Watson. Instead, Caserio gave a short, complimentary drive by on Watson at the end of the answer. Good try!
Nick doesn’t like “window” talk
“Free agency is case by case, so you look at the player, you look at his role, what’s the value of the player, have an understanding of the market, what are your options, is that the best thing for the football team? In the end, we’re going to do what we think is best for the Houston Texans team. DeMeco [Ryans] has said this countless times, I’ve expressed this countless times. It’s not about one person, it’s not about one player. Every year is different. We’re not really believers in windows. I’m not really sure what that means. It’s about the 2024 season, trying to put the best team together. What are our options? We’ll explore our options and we’ll try to make good sound decisions that make sense for our team.”
This answer was in response to a question about the oodles of salary cap space the Texans have this offseason. Fans and media love to talk about “title windows,” code for the period of years where you can maximize your title opportunities. I actually think this answer bodes well for the people looking for the Texans to be aggressive this offseason (if indeed Caserio is being truthful), because if you look at the Texans’ true window, there are some BIG contracts coming up within a couple years potentially, like Derek Stingley, Will Anderson, and C.J. Stroud.
And yet, he said they look at the team in “two year increments” AND gave a NICO NUGGET!
This was in response to a question about using the franchise tag:
“Yeah, it’s a part of it. It has to be a part of your calculus. It’s really a fixed number. Anytime you assign a tag to a player, it’s essentially, you’re committed to that value. Now, it doesn’t mean you can’t work out a long-term contract extension with that player, but it’s sort of a fixed number. I would say kind of like I talked about a little bit earlier, it’s almost a starting point in a negotiation. So, you have to figure out is that valuable, does that make sense, or let the player get to the open market, let the market dictate what the value is. Honestly, it’s a little cat-and-mouse game, so you just try to take the information in, have a general understanding of the market and try to make a good decision. We have some flexibility relative to financial commitments that we might be able to make, but you don’t necessarily have to use all your money up in one year. We’ve tried to – I’ve talked about this previously, you really look at your team in sort of two-year increments, so whatever you don’t do this year, that money is going to be used in future years. I’m sure I’ll get a question here very soon about Nico Collins. That’s coming. That could be a player that maybe he’s a part of the future. You’re dealing with the present. You’re focused on the short-term. But part of our responsibility is to kind of think ahead a little bit and just try to make good sound decisions for the team and the organization.”
How did nobody follow up on this?! Caserio is practically saying that the Texans’ splurge at wide receiver will, at some point, be a Nico Collins extension, which is a body blow to the “pay Mike Evans whatever it takes” crowd.
A salute to Will Anderson!
Speaking of Will Anderson, this was a question about Nick Saban, but the answer turned into a tribute to Will Anderson (and to a lesser extent, LB Henry To’o To’o):
“Yeah, Nick [Saban] is great to talk to. I mean, it’s similar to Bill [Belichick] in some respects. They have such a library and a history of players that you can benchmark against one another. You’re talking about two of the best minds in football. I’ve had a number of conversations with Coach Saban before the draft, not only the last year, but previous years, and his insight is very valuable and useful. I think everybody who spoke on Will [Anderson Jr.’s] behalf and the way Will was presented – we saw that in spades, and maybe it was even better than maybe we even thought. We’re happy that Will is on our team. Henry [To’oTo’o] did a great job this year, as well, kind of in his role. Kind of came in as a backup. He was forced to play in the middle of the year, I want to say weeks four, five, six, where we had some players that were injured, and he went out there and had some productive play. Excited about those two players and their growth, and really from year one to year two, really try to improve on some of the things they did last year.”
Caserio’s annual misinformation label warning
Nick Caserio si a great American, who does not want the NFL media or fan bases duped by the fake news cycle disseminated by so many hot shot reporters and player agents! The thing that’s noteworthy here is that this was in response to a question about their 2023 evaluation of Carolina QB and first overall pick Bryce Young:
“Yeah, I would just caution people this time of year to not pay too much attention to narratives that are out there about players or what teams are doing. I would just say going back to last year, there was quite a bit of misinformation out there about what happened or what the Texans were going to do. Really the only people that knew what the Texans were going to do were Coach [DeMeco] Ryans and myself. All I’m saying is we made the decisions that we feel are best for the Texans, and I’d say I’d be careful just to read into too many narratives about what a team is or is not going to do. This is – and I’ve said this – this is silly season, unfortunately. It makes for a lot of fun, makes for a lot of dialogue. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s not. We just try to focus on ourselves and try to make the right decisions for our team.”
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
