Tyrod Taylor, Mark Ingram, Phillip Lindsay, Shaq Lawson, Marcus Cannon and the other free agent additions that defined the 2021 Texans offseason are primed and ready to deliver the city of Houston... a pretty mediocre season. Right? With Deshaun Watson putting up incredible numbers last season, Houston went 4-12. Without Watson, which seems to be the most likely scenario for 2021 considering the FBI is now investigating allegations made against him and there's still the possibility of a trade, that team may not have gotten a win at all.
So when Nick Caserio took over as the general manager in January of 2021, the only really promising piece of the team to build around was Watson. Months later, that piece was gone. He wasn't exactly working with a lot, and the hand he was dealt certainly didn't seem all that winnable in the short-term. That's where we can give him credit for making a bevy of moves, including the hire of David Culley, the signings of the aforementioned veterans above and more.
In fact, broadcaster Spencer Tillman thought that what Caserio was able to accomplish in his first half-dozen months with the Texans organization was among the most impressive offseasons he had ever seen.
Let's just say that not everyone agreed with Tillman's analysis... or perhaps it's better to say that pretty much nobody agreed with it. Some examples:
Again, it's worth mentioning that Caserio walked into a really, really difficult situation. Still, this is an offseason that can best be summed up as the departures of J.J. Watt and Will Fuller, the additions of a bunch of mid-tier free agents (and one too many veteran running backs) and the continuing nightmare that is the Deshaun Watson situation. Nothing too great there, and certainly not an offseason that you'd think ranks up with the best GM jobs of the past decade... or comes all that close.
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