(SportsRadio 610) - There were serious warning signs from the moment David Culley was hired as Texans' head coach.
He struggled expressing himself at his earlier press conferences, stumbling over his words and sometimes not completing thoughts in his sentences.
But at that point, games had not been played and there was still some hope he could do the job adequately.
That did not turn out to be the case. He was often confused on when to punt; when to go for it on fourth down; if/when to decline or accept penalties; failed to see the value in letting a team score in a close game to allow enough time to respond with his own offense; and discovered only after the season was over that changing the offensive tempo was something the team should have done more.
Culley also admitted to not always seeing eye-to-eye with management's analytical approach, harping back to trusting his gut feeling in certain situations. He was adamant offensive coordinator Tim Kelly would return as their play caller, despite it being the worst offense in the league.
Culley and Kelly were both relieved of their duties Thursday.
But why did the Texans hire Culley in the first place? Could they not see these philosophical differences when they interviewed him, or at some point in the hiring process?
Caserio on Friday said he will leave it for others to judge whether he got the first head coaching hire right, but expressed no regret.
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"We hired David because we thought he was the best fit for the Houston Texans organization at the time, and still feel that way," Caserio said. "Again, this is a, I would say, year-to-year endeavor, and what we do each year is its own entity. You kind of have to look at its own bucket, and we made a commitment to David because we thought we felt that he was the best coach for our organization at that time. We still feel that way.
"So again, my responsibility organizationally, the position that I’m in, is to assess everything in detail from top to bottom, from coaching to players to our operation, whatever it is that we do. So, that’s not going to change, not going to change today, not going to change next year. So whether it’s one year, two years, four or five years, whatever it is, our responsibility is to at the end of the season and at the end of the year, evaluate everything and make the decision I feel is best for the McNair family and Houston Texans organization. We’re going to continue to do that. That’s not going to change."
The Texans are now searching for their third head coach in as many seasons. Caserio said the next coach should have a lot of the same leadership qualities as Culley, but it's clear he wants someone who aligns more from the X's and O's, strategic standpoint.
Twice when attempting to compliment Culley on Friday, Caserio mentioned taking "the execution out of it" and "forgetting about the X's and O's" only to focus on how hard they played.
"They played their ass off and they went out there with a lot of competitive spirit," Caserio said. "And we put ourselves in a position to win some more games that we maybe could’ve won or at least had the opportunity to do so. I think the attitude, the approach day-to-day when you’re around people in the building on a day-to-day basis. I think that goes back to the environment and the attitude David (Culley) was able to put in place.
"We have some players that are committed to us and excited to be here for next year. We made some commitments to them during the season. They made a purposeful decision to be a part of they’re doing because they believe in some of the things that we’re doing. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything other than they want to be here and they believe in what we’re doing. They understand there’s a lot of work but work, we’re about the work. The NFL is about the work and the one thing of how you want to define the Houston Texans for 2022, it’s going to be about the work."