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The Consequences Of A Bad Decision
Authored by Jeff Risdon - 22nd March, 2007 - 8:13 am
With John Herrera standing to his right dressed in black and appearing not unlike an undertaker, Lane Kiffin sat down at the podium for Sunday's postgame news conference.
Baltimore wants Flacco to be their QB of the future. But the Ravens feel they have no choice but to start him now because Boller and Smith are unavailable. Wrong!
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Sometimes in life you make a bad decision that keeps haunting you long down the road. You might not even grasp the egregiousness of the blunder at first. The further removed you get, the more obvious it is how bad a decision it truly was, how it has negatively impacted so many future decisions and made things worse in more ways than you ever expected. I’m talking blunders of a historic level, like instigating a land war in Asia, picking a fight with Mike Tyson, or befriending Paris Hilton. The Houston Texans made such a blunder a little over a year ago, and it just keeps worsening with another move they made today.
The Texans and Falcons agreed to a deal Wednesday that sends Atlanta’s backup QB, Matt Schaub, to the Texans. In return the Texans agree to switch 1st round draft slots and also send 2nd round picks in 2007 and 2008 to the Falcons. This moves Atlanta up from the 10th slot to #8, and the Texans slide down to #10.
This move is directly related to the aforementioned epic bad decision. That was when then-GM (now NBC talking head) Charley Casserly made the choice to draft Mario Williams with the #1 overall draft pick in the 2006 draft. Not Reggie Bush, the electrifying all-purpose RB carrying a Heisman Trophy in one of the best Heisman classes ever. Not QB Vince Young, who just won a national title pretty much by himself. Not even Matt Leinart, also holding a Heisman and darn close to another, nor D’Brickashaw Ferguson, the top offensive tackle prospect in nearly a decade. No, Casserly went with a talented but inconsistent DE that most talent evaluators had rated no higher than the 6th best player in the draft, and was as low as 11th overall for one team I know of.
The Texans crashed and burned to 6-10 and enter 2007 in desperate need of major upgrades at QB, RB, and T. David Carr, the first pick in franchise history, proved he was not a franchise QB, not for the Texans anyway. They dipped a foot into the obscenely overpriced free agent pool and landed RB Ahman Green, the former Packer coming off a bad injury and on the wrong side of 30 with loads of wear and tear. Now they deal two 2nd round picks and drop two valuable 1st round slots in order to obtain a QB.
Let that sink in for a minute. They could have had Vince Young, who put an inferior division rival on his back and somehow won 8 games. They could have had Reggie Bush, who put up all-purpose yards worthy of a premier back despite sharing the RB and KR roles, and who has been embraced as a savior by a desperate, disparate fan base. Or Leinart, who quietly had a better rookie season than Peyton Manning did despite having the worst rushing attack in years and a patchwork line. By not selecting any of those guys, it cost them not just the chance to have any of those great assets. It also cost them two high 2nd round draft picks and a couple of 1st round slots in a thinner draft. To put those 2nd round picks in perspective, over the last 4 drafts the players chosen in the range of where those picks will likely lay (35th-44th) became immediate starters nearly 80% of the time. The Texans themselves snared the Defensive Rookie of the Year with their own 2nd round pick in 2006. For a team with so many holes at so many key spots, those draft picks are integral to any hopes of contending.
The Texans just spent those picks on a career backup QB. To be fair, many talent evaluators are high on Schaub and he’s shown in limited duty he’s deserving of a starting shot. He has a better arm than Carr, and he’s shown toughness and good agility. I watched Schaub extensively during his college career at Virginia. Surrounded by pretty good talent (his senior season featured 6 future NFLers on offense), those Cavaliers often ran up the score on weaker teams but got summarily squelched by more talented defenses. In short, he’s a QB with some talent and ability, but not a guy who can make a good unit great or win games he’s not supposed to win. Maybe Schaub will blossom in Houston as much as Young did in Tennessee or Leinart in Arizona. But instead of one logical draft decision, their poor choice cost them two 2nd round picks, a better 1st round pick, and another long season of losing both games and fan loyalty. And if Schaub doesn’t pan out, it will cost the Texans even more down the road.
