So you trust Kubiak-Smith-Wade with the draft?


For the first Gary Kubiak year ever, I’m getting a lot of comments like this one:

On the blog, we do a lot of jibber jabber about draft stuff. Because people can’t get enough of it. And it helps pass the time until real football. In previous years, I’ve had a lot of comments have very specific ideas of what sorts of Texans drafts would make them happy, and what sorts would make them unhappy.

This year, I’m getting more of the trust comments.  In my mind, the best way to have success in the draft is to have good coaches, who have a specific philosophy and scheme, and know what sorts of players fit the best in that scheme. What Rich says makes sense. Doesn’t mean that the Texans are going to hit on every prospect, but at least you have some trust that if the Texans draft a guy, they can envision what that guy could do for the team and that they have the assistants to develop them.

As I’ve noted before, I think general draft boards are nonsense. I think there are few players that are so good that they could succeed no matter what their situation, fit, opportunity with a team. For most players, they need a good scheme/franchise fit. And all the players need health. Some of that is within the player’s control, but a lot of it isn’t in a violent game.

The Official Houston Texans Draft Party–An Example of Manufactured Stories.

Each year, I typically go to the official Houston Texans draft party. My friends save a seat in the front row where the radio broadcast is. It is also where most of the cameras go to get reaction shots. Though I have opinions on the draft, I don’t pretend to have more information than the team does because it’s not like I’ve watched cut-ups of the players or have interviewed them. As a fan, I just want whoever the new player is to feel welcomed. To me, that’s the best thing a fan can do for incoming free agents/drafted players. To help make Houston a great destination for players.  And there’s a contingent of fans around me that have the same point of view. We sit in a group and decide to smile for the cameras no matter who is taken.

Last year, though our side of the aisle was reasonably happy with the JJ Watt pick, there were some (presumably drunk) loud guys on the other side of the aisle who stood up and loudly booed.

Guess where the cameras went after the original reaction shot?

A swarm of video cameras went to the visibly angry people to interview them to find out their opinions. After the cameras left, I went over to those guys and asked them why they were so mad. They had a hard time articulating their reasons. They didn’t know anything about JJ Watt, except for one guy who knew that he was a white defensive lineman, and he didn’t want a white guy on the line. (The guy telling me this was a white guy. Go figure).

The whole reaction shot is staging. I am staging because I want an incoming draft pick who had no choice who was going to draft them and hasn’t stepped out on the field to feel welcomed. The camera folks are staging because the best TV comes from the demonstrative (often angry) people.

This happens everywhere. It is one reason that in a page hit world I’ve become increasingly skeptical about news, and trying to find the real story in the reporting of things.

Your Point of View.

So, are you good with whatever the Texans pick is in the first round and later? Do you give the team that level of trust? What if they ended up picking a first round TE, if their view was that the TE available was better than the WR available, and that they were truly going to get the best pick available?

Personally, I don’t like the whole idea of draft grades right after the draft. I’ve done them reluctantly before at FanHouse because I was asked to do them from my editor because readers tend to like them. Ultimately, I like seeing performance on the field. I like finding detailed info about the picks after the draft and trying to work backwards to see why the Texans may have chosen that guy instead of some other guy. And trying to think how that particular pick might see the field given the current roster. Those things I like.

I could never be the boo the pick person because I never see that as being fair. (Those who engage in that behavior will say that they aren’t booing the pick, but that they are booing the front office. I think that ends up being a distinction without a difference. I don’t think any draft pick wants to hear that the draft party booed them, though ultimately they have to have the mindset that they don’t care).

Sometimes it seems to me that everyone with access to a computer thinks they know more about the draft than the people picking:

This is the video from the last draft that didn’t contain any cuss words. There’s another one out there where the guys watching the draft are profanely ate up that the Texans didn’t draft Prince Amukamara. Wah.

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Stephanie Stradley

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