Will the Texans do the right thing?
Will the Texans do the right thing?
We'll see. Plus, what's next for the Colts, Taylor Heinicke's future, and a very fitting sendoff to Ben Roethlisberger
Hit the road, Jack
I’m beyond fed up with snake-oil salesmen who have grifted their way into powerful positions they’re unqualified for, as well as those who have enabled them.
I know I’m far from alone here. When it comes to Texans VP of football operation Jack Easterby, longtime NFL receiver Andre Johnson agrees:
As soon as Johnson tweeted that (his first “real” tweet in almost two years), the responses from former Texans players came pouring in. The consensus was two-fold: He’s right, and if he’s speaking up, you better listen to him.
Johnson has always been a man of few words, and he’s not one who would just publicly call out someone if it was unwarranted. Last month, Sports Illustrated published a terrific in-depth feature about Easterby’s controversial rise and his undeserved influence over the Texans organization. My main takeaway is that Easterby conned a whole lot of people, especially Texans owner Cal McNair, by at first selling himself as a dubious “character coach” to patronizingly guide players who are mostly young Black men. Then he steadily gained more and more control, even acting as the interim general manager once Bill O’Brien was fired — a move that one could read between the lines and deduce Easterby himself engineered — despite having no experience with roster management.
It seems clear to me that Easterby is a toxic figure who is only destroying the Texans from the inside out. Johnson would understand this dynamic firsthand: He stepped down as a special advisor to the Texans this past offseason, though he continued to help out as a team ambassador.
Easterby’s power within the organization doesn’t seem to have abated, either. He finagled McNair to ignore a search firm’s recommendation and hire Nick Caserio as Houston’s new GM. But I’m hoping that’s about to change now that Johnson has declared his support for Deshaun Watson and his opposition to Easterby’s underhanded maneuvering.
Johnson carries weight that no other former Texan does. Not just for his continued role with Houston, but also because he’s currently the only player in the team’s Ring of Honor. He’s putting a massive amount of pressure on McNair to act quickly or risk alienating his franchise quarterback even more than the Texans are already doing (and losing in the court of public opinion even more than they’re already doing).
Before this, I thought there was still time for the Texans to salvage their relationship with Watson. I figured that as soon as Caserio had a chance to meet with Watson and lay out his vision for the team, then Watson would get on board, so long as they appeased him with the coach hiring process. (Step one: interview Eric Bieniemy, though the Texans still kinda managed to screw that up too.)
Now I no longer think that’s possible unless they dump Easterby (or if McNair up and sells the Texans, which is probably a pipe dream).
So that leaves McNair with the choice between:
1) a, by all accounts, confidence man or
2) a top two or three NFL quarterback and the most revered player in team history.
Doesn’t seem that hard to me. — SH
What happens next for the Colts?
Indianapolis was a last-second Titans rally over the Texans away from the AFC South championship. But somehow, despite 11 wins, the Colts barely snuck into the postseason. Their spot as the seventh seed rewarded them with the chance to face the NFL’s hottest team, Buffalo, in front of a rabid fanbase experiencing live football for the first time this season and a playoff game for the first time since 1995.
Because they are a team led by Philip Rivers, they trailed by just three points with the ball in the final three minutes of a postseason duel. And, in true Rivers form, they lost in a fashion as confusing as it was heartbreaking.
Indianapolis had the ball at its own 30 at the two-minute warning, then needed 10 plays to gain just 23 yards before the clock ran out on a 27-24 loss. Rivers, without any timeouts at his disposal, defaulted to short throws and limited sideline routes as the Bills escaped with their first playoff win since the Clinton administration. The capper, a last-gasp Hail Mary attempt, justified head coach Frank Reich’s regular season decisions to let Jacoby Brissett launch miracle balls rather than his veteran QB:
Rivers is headed for free agency or possibly retirement, leaving Indianapolis at a crossroad. Reich wants him back. The 39-year-old himself isn’t sure which direction he’s leaning:
The only quarterback on the roster under contract for 2021 is Jacob Eason, which is a problem. Finding help in the draft with a first-round pick outside the top 20 won’t bring an immediate solution. Fortunately, only two teams in the league have more projected salary cap space than the Colts’ $60+ million. A veteran quarterback will be at the helm next fall. The question is whether it’s a re-upped Rivers or someone else.
Why would Rivers come back? Aside from the motivation of 11 seasons of .500 or better and zero Super Bowl appearances in his career, he’s coming off a valuable bounce-back year. The Colts shaved the rough gunslinger tendencies that marred the end of his career as a Charger from his edges, leading him to shorter throws but a significant uptick in efficiency. His completion rate rose and his interceptions dropped from 20 in 2019 to only 11 in 2020 despite a relative downgrade from Los Angeles’ established receiving corps to Indianapolis’ less trustworthy ranks.
The veteran posted his second-highest passer rating since 2013 in leading an 11-win club. He wasn’t especially explosive but his deep ball completion rate actually jumped from 32 percent in his final season in LA to 44 percent in Indy. Even if he wasn’t clicking, he could fall back on a top 10 defense to pick up the slack. Things are good in Indiana!
But Rivers’ unshakable identity as Playoff Sisypheus is a concern. The veteran did work to prove he was equally responsible for the Chargers’ string of postseason misery as the cursed franchise from which he came. Indianapolis may think he can move the needle come January, but after Saturday’s loss there’s no way they’d 100 percent trust him to do so — especially after a game where the Colts won both the total yardage and time of possession battle by significant margins but still lost on the scoreboard.
There’s reason to think things could be better with Rivers even as he stares down his 40th birthday. The Colts are loaded with young, inexpensive playmaking talent. Michael Pittman Jr. had 101 yards of total offense in the first 25 minutes of Saturday’s game. While he finished with … 101 yards of total offense, he looks like a foundational piece of the Indy passing game next to a revitalized T.Y Hilton.
Jonathan Taylor underwhelmed in his playoff debut with less than four yards per carry and a pair of costly drops, but he’s also the same guy who averaged 123 rushing yards and 1.2 touchdowns per game over the final six weeks of the regular season. Nyheim Hines is a bottle rocket capable of planting a foot, exploding laterally, and making three guys crash into each other instead of tackling him:
The crop of free agent quarterbacks is slated to be headlined by useful, but flawed players like Cam Newton, Mitchell Trubisky, Tyrod Taylor, and Jameis Winston. Dak Prescott likely won’t make it to the open market. Texans star Deshaun Watson is said to be extremely unhappy with the franchise that spent most of 2020 crumbling around him. He’s also the only (maybe) available quarterback who’d be a clear upgrade over the 2019 version of Rivers, but teams don’t just let franchise quarterbacks in their 20s leave.
You’d have to go back to Washington allowing Kirk Cousins to walk or, if we’re talking trades of disgruntled young passers only, the Broncos unloading Jay Cutler to Chicago as far as rising, Pro Bowl QBs changing teams in the past decade-plus go. Watson is on an entirely different plane than either of those guys. Houston may be looking to write a new chapter in its franchise history, but unless the title is “we’re fucking stupid” they’re not going to follow up the Bill O’Brien GM experiment by letting Watson go, especially to a division rival.
That leaves broken toy trade options like Sam Darnold and Carson Wentz on general manager Chris Ballard’s plate. Wentz is especially interesting because Reich served as his offensive coordinator in his salad years. If anyone can set his career back on the right track, it’s the Colts’ current playcaller. Indianapolis has the space to absorb the Philly’s QB’s ill-advised contract extension, the question is whether Ballard — who has used top 50 picks to hit on building blocks like Quenton Nelson, Darius Leonard, Braden Smith, Taylor, and Pittman — would give up any kind of capital to bail out the Eagles from a bad situation.
This is a tough decision, albeit one that gets much easier if Rivers decides to call it a career. The Colts have a young foundation of blocking and playmakers ready-made for a caretaker quarterback to lead it back to the postseason. But Ballard has spent the past three years cultivating talent and assets … with no long-term answer behind center.
The most likely answer is another short-term pact with Rivers and, likely, another year where no one picks Indianapolis to make it to the AFC title game. But don’t count out a Wentz deal once Philadelphia gets desperate … or another bold Ballard draft move if a prospect like Mac Jones or Trey Lance slides into the Colts’ range. — CD
Taylor Heinicke, whose ceiling is way higher than XFL backup
Taylor Heinicke started last week’s playoff game for the Washington Football Team. This is impressive, because 32 days prior he wasn’t even playing football.
Washington’s emergency quarterback was pulled from finals week at Old Dominion University; he was taking online courses at the school where he’d played his college ball six years earlier. The Football Team had churned through three starting passers en route to an unlikely NFC East title. Alex Smith, the most successful of the trio, was unavailable for the Wild Card Round due to a calf injury.
So in stepped Heinicke, who’d spent last spring backing up Jordan Ta’amu for the XFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks. And, against most odds, the former Monarch balled out. The second start of his career saw him fall one last gasp touchdown shy of pushing the favored Buccaneers to overtime. It wouldn’t have been possible without Heinicke’s ability to throttle the moment; he had 352 total yards — 306 through the air — and a pair of touchdowns in the best showing of his NFL career.
Heinicke should have had more yards, too. Drops from Cam and Steven Sims proved costly early in the game, though both made up for it later on with either big games — Cam led the team with seven catches for 104 yards — or extremely clutch touchdowns:
This makes the 27-year-old an interesting addition to 2021’s free agent marketplace. Did he make a case as this spring’s Matt Flynn — a young, under-scouted passer who can turn one strong start into an overpriced contract from a needy team? Better yet, how did a guy who didn’t even start in the XFL hang more passing yards on the Buccaneers than all but four other teams in 2020? Heinicke’s composure played a significant role, but his mobility, especially compared to Washington’s typical statuesque starter Alex Smith, was the difference maker.
“I think some of our guys — I don’t think veterans did, but some of our younger guys — might have relaxed when Alex Smith wasn’t playing,” Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians told reporters after the game. “I kind of kept preaching at them, ‘This kid can run, he can do a lot of things.’ He almost beat us with his legs.”
“He was very elusive. We knew he was going to scramble around [and] there was going to be bootlegs and scrambles. We were really hoping for Alex because we knew that part of the game wasn’t going to be in there.”
His mobility wasn’t the only factor that allowed the Football Team’s offense to exceed expectations. The Buccaneers were prepping for a quarterback whose average completion traveled just 3.7 yards downfield in 2020. With Heinicke in the lineup, a secondary and linebacker corps slated to cluster near the line of scrimmage now had to deal with a quarterback who spread the ball out like this:
It was the perfect contrast to the offense for which Tampa had prepared. Smith threw 23 passes of 10-19 yards downfield in his eight games this season, per SIS. Heinicke attempted 14 in just one playoff game — though he also excelled in the short throws on which Smith staked his comeback.
This casts a bit of a pall over an otherwise eye-opening performance. Smith’s late scratch from the lineup gave Heinicke leverage. While the young journeyman still had to work his ass off to turn that opportunity into a quality start, there’s reason to believe a team that spent the week prior churning through his game tape would be able to limit his impact.
Then there’s all the other evidence working against Heinicke. He hadn’t been part of an active NFL roster since the 2018 season. He threw zero passes in the XFL. He was signed after quarterbacks like Clayton Thornton, Tyler Huntley, Tyler Bray, Reid Sinnett, and Mike White. The odds he took advantage of a good situation are much better than the odds he suddenly turned a corner after spending the prior eight months out of organized football.
Still, Heinicke proved he can execute a gameplan and turn a shaky lineup of skill players into a group that can put a real scare in a solid defense like the Buccaneers. That doesn’t mean he’ll be anything more than a depth chart lottery ticket going forward … but it definitely means he deserves more than to ride the pine in a spring football league. — CD
Just go away, Ben Roethlisberger
The most enduring image from Wild Card weekend had to be the photo of a dejected Ben Roethlisberger sitting on the bench after the Steelers’ loss to the Browns. That picture launched a thousand thinkpieces about the old ass quarterback’s future in the league. Again.
It feels like we get a will-he-or-won’t-he retire drama about Roethlisberger every damn offseason, which I guess is a natural thing for a guy in his late thirties with the fitness habits of the fifty-something Steelers fan playing a game that literally takes years off a player’s life. Roethlisberger deferred that story to a later date earlier this week, telling the press that this was not the time to weigh his options for the year ahead.
He should definitely retire. And rational sports journos have been making that case all week. There’s the cost-vs-need argument about retooling the Steelers roster. There’s another line of thought that, setting aside the monumental cap considerations, he’s a drag on the team’s overall approach. These are both very smart takes, much more so than my own belief that he needs to retire because he is a tedious person.
The old QB very public retirement dance is nothing new to anyone who lived through the later part of Brett Favre’s career. I don’t know why it’s just the slackjawed dipshits who have to weigh career decisions through the filter of the national media. But here we are.
Roethlisberger’s possible retirement is one of those stories made to gum up the offseason. He’s not going to do the responsible thing and make the decision ahead of free agency and the draft; no, that would allow his team to methodically plan for its future. Instead, it’ll all happen in the summer sports vacuum, when we’re all so tired of baseball we’re more than happy to watch this foolishness play out on television, talk radio, and endless bytes and bits of HTML #content served up to generate page views.
And the worst part is that we’ll know full well what the ultimate outcome is if he’s still hemming and hawing at the end of June—of course, he’ll come back. Steelers fans will rejoice. We’ll get all kinds of feature-length tributes to the great Ben Roethlisberger (conveniently overlooking that incident).
So just hang it up, please. And spare us all an offseason story so tedious we’ll be pining for Deflategate again. —RVB