Offseason Tidbits

[popanot]

Rich Cimini
‏@RichCimini For GM job: Confirmed that Jets have requested to interview Texans dir of college scouting Mike Maccagnan, as @BrianCoz said. #nyj

As I said before, I think you have to consider the whole Texans scouting department when looking the horrid draft history under Smith, so I would have to think Maccagnan is part of the problem and losing him might not be such a bad thing. In addition, if the Jets do hire him as GM, would it make Kubiak the frontrunner for HC? Good luck with that NYJ!!

[Keith]

That's what the Jets deserve for asking Charley Casserly to whisper in their ears.

[Nconroe]

So Casserly and Mccagnan dont exactly give us a sense of confidence in future. Just a consideration on draft picks , perhaps salary cap, injuries, and coaches have impacted Texans draft results. A lot of ex Texas players doing ok around the league.

[HPF Bob]

Can they find the guy who scouts the Virginia/Virgina Tech/NC State/South Carolina region we draft so many players from? We seem to take a lot of them and the results are a mixed bag.

[Keith]

^^^ Dale Strahm, a Bronco guy before he came to Houston. He has since retired, I think sometime between 2012-13.

In other news, the team granted permission for Brian Gaine (director of pro personnel) to interview for the GM position with the Bears. Gaine has only been here a year, but it sure seems to me that the Texans improved their pro scouting efforts this year with some of these diamonds in the rough they kept discovering during the 2014 season.

Gaine was hired from the Dolphins where he had been an assistant GM under Jeff Ireland. He's part of the Parcells tree. If the Texans were ever going to "promote" Rick Smith out of the GM position, Gaine seems like a good candidate to replace him.

[Keith]

Texans on short list of candidates for HBO's Hard Knocks this summer. From SI:

2. For fans of HBO’s Hard Knocks, here’s the list of NFL teams eligible to be drafted by the league should no team volunteer to take part in the series: Giants, Redskins, Vikings, Bucs, Rams, Browns, Texans, Jaguars and Titans. The exemptions include teams with first-year head coaches, teams that have made the playoffs the last two seasons, and teams that have been featured on the series in the past 10 years.

http://www.si.com/more-sports/2015/0...cetype=default

[popanot]

Originally Posted by Keith

Gaine has only been here a year, but it sure seems to me that the Texans improved their pro scouting efforts this year with some of these diamonds in the rough they kept discovering during the 2014 season.

They definitely found some decent talent off the trash heap this year. I remember some of the NFL insiders/analysts on Twitter saying he was a good hire for the Texans when it happened. I'd take a chance on him as GM over Smith at this point.

[Arky]

D-line coach Bill Kollar takes a job with Kubiak in Denver. He's got family in Denver so.....

[Warren]

Former Bears DL coach and Syracuse and UConn HC Paul Pasqualoni to replace Kollar: http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans...ne/#29865101=0

[HPF Bob]

Pasqualoni is a veteran coach with a deep resume. He's the sort you could picture O'Brien/Crennel bringing in. As a head coach, I wasn't that impressed but we all know great assistants who didn't pan out as head coaches so that's no knock on the guy. He might even be overqualified to be a position coach.

[Nconroe]

here is a writeup on Texans site about our new DL coach, new OL coach, and new assistants http://www.houstontexans.com/news/ar...1-5898faf6a24b

Pasqualoni, new DL coach, was at Chicago last year where they had 39 sacks. He has coached for 40 years.

Devlin is new OL coach has spent last 9 years with NY Jets, first as TE coach and last few as OL coach. He played 7 years in NFL, mostly with Buffalo.

Pleasant transistioned from Texans strength assistant. Looks like he has been with Romeo Crenell fourteen years at Jets, Patriots, and Chiefs.

And I saw a note where Bill O'Brien came in second in Coach of the year voting. Sounds about right. Just need that super elite QB to emerge.

[HPF Bob]

Nestled in this article is a table showing the current cap space of all NFL teams:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/page/...ee-agents-2015

For those who want to cut to the chase, the Texans have $8.4 million in cap space at present. That ranks them 22nd in cap room. Teams in the negative (thus a better chance of poaching their players) are Pittsburgh, Miami, New England, Kansas City, San Francisco, Arizona and New Orleans.