(SportsRadio 610) - The Texans entered the 2023 NFL Draft with 12 selections, more than any other team in the league.
By the end of the weekend, the Texans and general manager Nick Caserio came away with nine players that took a total of eight transactions with five different organizations to round out Caserio’s third draft class with the team.
That’s a lot of wheeling and dealing.
“I think anybody that looks at our organization knows that we're literally open for business probably 24/7,” Caserio said. “So if there's a trade or someone to consider, they're going to pick the phone up and call because we're going to at least think about it.”
The Texans made the first big splash of the weekend, trading up nine spots Thursday night from the No. 12 slot to No. 3 overall with the Arizona Cardinals to take former Alabama star Will Anderson Jr.
Surrendering their second-round pick this year along with the pick swap, the Texans also sent the Cardinals their 2024 first- and third-round picks to take Anderson third overall and an extra fourth rounder (which Caserio ended up trading away).
That’s a lot to put together in a short amount of time. Having a previous relationship with a guy you want to do business with can be helpful and expedite the process.
That was certainly the case for Caserio and Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort, his former New England colleague who just completed running his first ever draft.
“Whether or not we could move from 12 to wherever, it was contingent upon a number of different factors,” Caserio said. “Good working relationship with Monti (Ossenfort) and the Arizona organization. There was dialogue I would say over the last handful of days about some general thoughts and parameters about whether or not this was something we were interested in doing.”
It seems like all the Texans had to do Thursday night was make the call, which of course they did.
A big part of the job as general manger for any professional sports franchise is to have a familiarity with whom you’ve got to do business with.
Identifying how a team or opposing general manager likes to conduct business, understanding what they’re willing to listen to, is actually something the Texans spend quite a bit of time on, according to Caserio.
“We actually look at this and study this before the draft. So we kind of do an overview of the decision makers in each organization,” Caserio explained. “We look at the trade history, their draft history, some of the things they've done, maybe some of the trades that we've executed with them. We even go back to my time in New England dealing with certain teams.”
The Texans third-year GM even knows which teams won’t bother even picking up a phone call or consider movement.
That’s a completely different kind of discipline and philosophy than the one Caserio employs with the Texans.
Whether the aggressive style that Caserio has shown in the draft process the last three seasons works long term, remains to be seen. However, he’s certainly on the clock moving forward after selecting a franchise quarterback and mortgaging a lot of future draft capital for the top edge rusher in this years draft.
“Do I think we're improving the football team? I mean hopefully,” Caserio said. “Now we have to go out there and actually play good football. That's going to come with time. This is about work. The process hasn't ended.”
Shaun Bijani has spent the last 16 years covering the Houston sports scene for SportsRadio 610. Follow him on Twitter @ShaunBijani.
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