Landry Locker: Major takeaways from BOB’s NFL Combine media session

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Photo credit © Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Texans head coach Bill O’Brien met with the media on Wednesday and while many people don’t feel like he said much, I think there are some major takeaways that can be gathered from BOB’s NFL Combine media session.

Here are the Podium Critic’s biggest takeaways from BOB’s presser:

 

No. 1: O’Brien clearly wants the Honey Badger back.

Two times during his media session BOB said he would leave anything that had to do with offseason decisions to Brian Gaine, once in a general sense and then when discussing Jadeveon Clowney.

However, when asked about Tyrann Mathieu O’Brien praised the Honey Badger and then said, “There’s no doubt that we would love to have Tyrann back.”

O’Brien didn’t say he wanted Clowney back, he didn’t say he wanted Kareem Jackson back, but he made it clear he wanted Mathieu, that speaks for itself.

 

No. 2: Kareem Jackson’s days as a Texan seem to be done and there’s a reason to believe Kareem wants out.

Immediately after the endorsement of Mathieu BOB was asked about Jackson. However, Kareem didn’t get the same endorsement the Honey Badger got.

BOB said Jackson had a good year and said one thing that really stuck out. After praising Jackson’s 2018 season and career as a Texan BOB had this to say about the free agent to be, “These are all decisions and part of the process that take time, it’s a business, it takes two to tango.”

Podium Critic instinct: Early negotiations haven’t gone well, Jackson believes he has more value than the Texans do and BOB would rather have Mathieu on the 2019 roster than Jackson.

Side note: John Lopez also had this sense when Jackson joined us on In The Loop LIVE at Radio Row in Atlanta.

 

No. 3: BOB’s stance on D’Onta Foreman appears to be softened and he seems to have hope for the third-year running back.

It was easy to see and hear BOB’s frustration with running back D’Onta Foreman’s rehab last season. Even at the end of the season, O’Brien said Foreman took “forever” to come back from his Achilles.

However, BOB had some good things to say about Foreman and even sounded more sympathetic about the process Foreman went through recovering from the first major injury of his football career.

“You know, anytime you get injured your rookie year I think that’s hard. He tore the Achilles and that’s a tough rehab for a young player, a running back especially and there were some ups-and-downs with the rehab… He’s a good football player, he takes a lot of pride in what he’s doing, I know he’s working right now. Next year’s a big year for him and I think he knows that.”

I know for a fact BOB had high-hopes for Foreman coming into the 2018 season and it appears those hopes have re-emerged and the in-season frustration has turned into optimism. 

 

No. 4: Tim Kelly is willing to challenge BOB and BOB respects him enough to listen.

It used to drive me nuts when BOB and other media types would talk about Tom Savage’s knowledge of the system. Does knowing the system matter if the system is stagnant and stale especially when a guy can’t play?

This could be me being optimistic, but O’Brien said something about new offensive coordinator Tim Kelly that I liked a lot.

“He knows where the system can be improved, he knows where the system can be tweaked.”

The Texans getting to the next step as a football team relies heavily on O’Brien tweaking his offensive system to fitting the personnel on the team and making the system more Deshaun-friendly. Kelly not only knows the system, but it appears he has opinions on what needs to change and most importantly, the trust of BOB to allow him to make those tweaks.

 

No. 5: BOB is aware the Texans could fall off like Jacksonville did in 2018 and last year means very little heading into 2019

Linebacker Whitney Mercilus said he feels the Texans are close to competing for a Super Bowl in 2019.

When asked about Mercilus’s comments BOB said, “I think I understand what Whitney is saying, Whitney has been a very productive player for us, but what I would say is every year is different.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars won the AFC South in 2017 and were a quarter away from the Super Bowl, but finished last in the division last year.

This season there were six new teams in the playoffs and in 2017 there were eight new teams. It’s a year-to-year league and it appears BOB is aware of that and hesitant to assume the best is yet to come, which is music to my ears.

Damn, this offseason is going to be fun.

#PodiumCritic

 

Listen to Landry Locker Monday-Friday 10-2pm on In The Loop on SportsRadio 610.