Kubiak and Smith Contracts Extended

[Warren]

Originally Posted by chuck

Funny, you know, I was reading through this (I'd first seen it on the Chronicle's site) and before I got to your post I was reflecting on how sanguine I am about the extensions and how I'm even more at ease with Kubiak's being extended than I am Smith's. Like barrett I do not begrudge Kubiak's success as the head coach of a team with an excellent coaching staff. It would have been fantastic had he put a competent staff together six years ago but what can you do? Last year there was a notable lack of halfback passes, fewer bonehead challenges than usual and no suicidal clock management decisions.

I'm still not sold on Smith. For every home-run draft he seems to oversee two or three that just suck massively. But there's not a hell of a lot I can do about that, either.

At the end of the day I think if the team's winning then continuity is good.

That’s basically how I feel. I’ve never seen anyone with the team give a straight answer about who does what as far as player personnel, but I’ve heard/read that the Texans organization is set up like the Broncos were under Shanahan, with the coaches doing the serious player evaluation and the scouts being basically information gatherers. At the very least, it’s clear that the coaches have significant input into the draft and free agency. Kubiak has shown that he has a pretty good eye for finding players that fit his offense, and so far, so has Wade on the other side of the ball. The previous defensive staffs not so much, and that’s where the biggest busts have been. So I don’t know how much credit (or blame) Smith is due as a talent evaluator, but the results have been a mixed bag.

[barrett]

I think that we have had generally improving results on the field and in the draft room the last few years. I remember Smith giving an interview this spring about how much easier it is to make a draft day trade now that he knows the other GMs and is a little calmer/knows what to expect on draft day.

Basically, we had a 1st time GM and 1st time head coach partnering up and scattered results. They appear to have figured it out to some degree now.

As for Kubs not getting a competent DC for so long, that is concerning. It blows my mind how some really good football minds can be so clueless on the other side of the ball (Andy Reid comes to mind). Other guys never figured it out but lucked into/inherited great other side of the ball guys (Dungy and Moore, Reid and Johnson, Gruden and Dungy's defensive system). As long as Wade sticks around we are safe, but I wonder what will happen in a few years when we need to replace Wade. If Reggie Herring is not our next DC (and turns out to be a good one), then I have no confidence that we can go outside of our coaching tree and hire a guy cold.