Ex-Texan Phillip Buchanon Writes a Book

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

Buchannon performed badly here because as I recall he's basically a cover-2 corner and the Texans were running lots of man stuff back them. So bad fit just like Jason Babin ended up being a very good edge-rusher as a 4-3 DE but he was not suited to play as an OLB in Capers 3-4 which is what the Texans drafted him to do.

So your saying Casserly didn't understand players have fits and coaches have needs?

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by painekiller

So your saying Casserly didn't understand players have fits and coaches have needs?

A real possibility I'd say, but maybe it's something else like the communications between Casserly and the coaching staff was not good.
Of course that doesn't mean that Casserly didn't get Capers and his staff exactly who they wanted but the coaches could have overestimated their own ability to coach the players well enough to adapt to their defense. Who knows, could have been a lot of things or more likely it was a combo of things.

[HPF Bob]

I'm going to presume that Casserly wouldn't have traded away a 2nd, 3rd and 4th to a division rival just to get a player who had no background at that position in college without the head coach (Capers, in this case) pacing around like a caged tiger insisting he do it. Can't imagine Chatty Casserly doing that for any other reason. You don't stick your neck out like that without the coach's blessing.

In case you're curious, this is what the Titans did with those draft picks:

2nd round, No. 40: Ben Troupe, TE
3rd round, No. 71: Randy Starks, DT
4th round, No. 103: Bo Schobel, DE
5th round, No. 138 Jacob Bell, G (Texans and Titans swapped 5th round with the Texans then dealing it to Jacksonville for a 6th and a 7th)

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

I'm going to presume that Casserly wouldn't have traded away a 2nd, 3rd and 4th to a division rival just to get a player who had no background at that position in college without the head coach (Capers, in this case) pacing around like a caged tiger insisting he do it. Can't imagine Chatty Casserly doing that for any other reason. You don't stick your neck out like that without the coach's blessing.

In case you're curious, this is what the Titans did with those draft picks:

2nd round, No. 40: Ben Troupe, TE
3rd round, No. 71: Randy Starks, DT
4th round, No. 103: Bo Schobel, DE
5th round, No. 138 Jacob Bell, G (Texans and Titans swapped 5th round with the Texans then dealing it to Jacksonville for a 6th and a 7th)

Hey Bob you do know don't you that most NFL 3-4 OLBs have been first "hand-in-the-dirt" 4-3 DEs in college since historically they haven't run many 3-4 defenses in college. Even on our current roster both Clowney and Mercilus were 4-3 DEs in college as was the recently released Brooks Reed.

[barrett]

Everyone projects what a guy can do. Sometimes they are wrong. Casserly was wrong more than most.

With that said, Babin failed lots of places. He was mostly terrible for Seattle, Philly (the first time), Jacksonville, the Jets, and obviously Houston. He has 64 sacks in an 11 year career and over 30 came in two seasons. So I wouldn't say the issue was Houston played him in the wrong position. I'd say the issue was he had 1 skill that could be deployed from one specific alignment, and even then he'd fail on most of the snaps that weren't a wide pass rush getting home.

He had a career high for tackles as a rookie in Houston, so obviously we asked him to be a more complete player than other teams did. He was a situational rush end who we had to ask more of to justify the draft position/trade. So I'd say it was more about lack of talent than bad position fit.

Also I'm not sure what the point of this post is.

[Nconroe]

So has everyone ordered Philip Buchanan book? Not sure I'd have much confidence in the wisdom being departed.

I always got the impression Casserly was trying to draft players and positions he thought coaches were asking for. Babin and Buchanan sure worked out poorly.

[barrett]

I just read my post and found it confusing. I meant I don't know what the point of my own reply was. Not that I didn't understand the point of the OP.