A decade ago, when the owner of an NFL team sized up San Diego City Hall\u2019s ability to get a Chargers stadium built, he threw Texas-sized shade from Houston.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn San Diego, they\u2019ve been trying for about 15 years,\u201d Texans owner Bob McNair told the Houston Chronicle in December 2015. \u201cThey\u2019ve had all kinds of political problems there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting nasty about it, mentioned a\u00a02003 scandal involving three City Council members. Never mind that three were long gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt one time, half the council went to jail or something,\u201d said McNair, who was on an NFL stadium panel. \u201cIt\u2019s been pretty bad. It\u2019s hard to negotiate when you\u2019ve got to go to the jail to negotiate. So, they haven\u2019t accomplished anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then McNair canceled a meeting with San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer.<\/p>\n
Lately, the Texans have again emerged as prominent in the Chargers\u2019 universe, but it\u2019s for a reason unrelated to the NFL\u2019s brass-knuckles stadium politics.<\/p>\n
The Texans have become their sharpest at football since McNair led them into the league in 2002.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve won their past eight games as they head toward a third postseason in a row. And their long-term foundation has never been this sturdy. It can\u2019t be lost on the AFC\u2019s other playoff teams, including the now-Los Angeles Chargers, that the Texans are well-positioned to succeed in seasons ahead, too.<\/p>\n
They boast three stars at premium spots who are just 24 years old in quarterback C.J. Stroud, cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. and edge rusher Will Anderson. Going into the next NFL draft, they have the best stash of picks among this year\u2019s 14 playoff teams \u2014 four in the top 70, six before the fifth round and nine overall.<\/p>\n
How did the Texans become so capable?<\/p>\n
The key initial move was this one: CEO Cal McNair hired longtime Patriots personnel man Nick Caserio as the general manager in January 2021, two-plus years and a month after McNair\u2019s father died at 81.<\/p>\n
The Bill Belichick protege tree hadn\u2019t impressed most NFL observers.<\/p>\n
Caserio, 50, has been a shining exception.<\/p>\n
Fourteen months into his tenure, Caserio traded scandal-plagued quarterback Deshaun Watson and a fourth-round pick to the Browns.<\/p>\n
In return, he got three first-round picks, three other picks between the second and fourth rounds and ample salary-cap freedom.<\/p>\n
Caserio took Stroud and Anderson second and third atop the 2023 draft, the latter after trading up, a move many draft analysts deemed too pricey.<\/p>\n
Doubling down on Stroud after the Ohio State alum had a great rookie year, Caserio invested in three free-agent defenders who\u2019ve all panned out \u2014 end Danielle Hunter, tackle Denico Autry and linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair.<\/p>\n
The GM\u2019s hire of DeMeco Ryans as a first-time head coach became another large win.<\/p>\n
In the three seasons under Ryans, the Texans\u2019 .620 win rate stands tied for seventh with Sean Payton\u2019s Broncos. Ryans\u2019 first two teams won a wild-card playoff game.<\/p>\n
True to Ryans\u2019 reputed defensive expertise, the Texans lead the NFL in fewest points, yards and first downs allowed.<\/p>\n
Caserio spent 20 years under Belichick, mostly as a scout or a scouting executive. He was credited with large contributions to three of the Patriots\u2019 six Super Bowl-winning seasons.<\/p>\n
Uncommonly versatile, the former quarterback for Ohio\u2019s John Carroll University coached Patriots receivers in 2007 when the offense set several NFL records. The offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, was a former teammate.<\/p>\n
Brandin Cooks, a former Texans and Patriots receiver, described Caserio as having \u201cno ego,\u201d per\u00a0ESPN. Patriots executives lauded him as \u201cselfless\u201d and \u201cincredibly driven and intelligent\u201d to\u00a0NFL.com\u00a0in 2013.<\/p>\n
Belichick, a famously difficult boss to please, told the Boston Herald in 2014 that Caserio \u201cprobably does more than any other person in his position in the league in terms of his amount of responsibility, the number of different things he does on the coaching and the scouting level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet if they are to reach this year\u2019s Super Bowl, the Texans will need to break out of character.<\/p>\n
The franchise has never made it past the divisional round.<\/p>\n
In the Texans\u2019 two playoff losses under Ryans, to the Ravens and the Chiefs, their offense\u2019s blocking breakdowns overly burdened the team\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s offensive line is much less expensive.<\/p>\n
Caserio\u2019s trade of tackle Laremy Tunsil and a 2025 fourth-round pick to Washington freed up a needed cap space that can help secure Stroud and Anderson, who are first-time eligible for contract extensions this offseason. Because of Washington\u2019s surprising falloff, the Texans got picks that will fall in the top half of the second and fourth rounds on top of two picks they made in March.<\/p>\n
Rookie left tackle Aireontae Ersery, a second-round choice out of Minnesota, has panned out.<\/p>\n
The blocking remains a concern, but an AFC-best defense can offset a lot. Stroud, whose salary cap charge is $35 million to $45 million less than those of Justin Herbert and Josh Allen this season, has already won two playoff games.<\/p>\n
This team went 3-0 behind QB Davis Mills, Caserio\u2019s first-ever Texans draftee, after Stroud was concussed. The Texans are a problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A decade ago, when the owner of an NFL team sized up San Diego City Hall\u2019s ability to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,752,74,76,75,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-119368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}