Texans GM Rick Smith taking extended family medical leave

Lance's source might (likely) be Smith. BUT!...

The Texans very obviously handled his original exit incorrectly. There should've been an amicable (and financial + health care considerations) parting of the ways when Smith asked for the leave; not some third grade, pinky swear promise they'd save his place in the lunch line. They had to have known - or should've - that that was a bad idea.

 

Man, that's cold. I always felt like Bob McNair was too hands off and should have stepped in to remove front office personnel earlier, but in general I felt like he was a decent human being. But if that story is true of Cal, then he's a piece of ****.

 

This was such a sad deal that I don't think there was anyway for the Texans not to look like complete a**holes. But according to the timeline, Rick took a 1 year leave of absence on January 1st 2018. And although Bob called him into the office 6 months later essentially relieving him of his duties, they actually kept him on until December 31st. The timing for Rick couldn't have been worst and the best thing would've been to keep him in some type of capacity to maintain his benefits, especially since he was still under contract through 2020 and was going to be paid anyways. Even more so since they blurred they chose not to keep their relationship purely business. I don't think the McNairs had any ill will or tried to take advantage of the situation, honestly just don't think they have much or any cognitive awareness for others.

 

True. It's possible but at least it means his story hasn't changed.

I was dubbed the RS apologist when my point was simply that we could do worse at the GM position. A couple years later, we are still wondering about the GM position.

 

If your employer is going to get rid of you, The personal situation doesn't matter. ALL employers are about their bottomline. They can give you lip service about caring, but it all comes down to results and money.
The Texans should have done something with Rick and the health insurance because they were so "Close", but it doesn't surprise me they didn't. People with LOTS of money are assholes.

 

Give me Rick Smith right now as GM over Bill O'Brien.

 

Fans do not understand how to properly evaluate a GM's performance. They all point to the Patriots. Or... at the time. The 49'ers who had Kapernick at the time (lulz) and Seattle, while ignoring all the other GM's.

You'd often hear complaints about Smith squandering late round picks, while hand-selecting better choices from specific teams like Seattle who found Bobby Wagner. The reality is most teams blow late round picks all of the time.The important thing is to not blow your 1st rd pick. And Smith did fine there.

Smith was middle-of-the-pack at worst. Which isn't easy to do.

But the average NFL fans don't really understand sports, let's be honest. Their simple minds are consumed by bad beer, oversized trucks and fast food.

 

Yes; fans have - and always will - conveniently cherry-pick. And Rick Smith did better than fine with his first round picks - he was actually exceptional.

But fans will also - rightly - point out that 2nd and 3rd picks are equally vital, and here, Smith was (mostly) an abject failure. He did make up for some of it with street free agents, and what not. But his 2nd and 3rd track record was rather abysmal, and he was the GM that oversaw Brooks. Jones, Bouye and Brown's departure.

 

Go find me 20 other GM's that were nailing 2nd & 3rd rd picks regularly...

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

Here comes the - BUT SEATTLE GOT WAGNER & WILSON & IRVIN in the SAME year...

Sigh.

 

The standard isn't regularly nailing 2nd and 3rd round picks. How about occasionally? His 2nd and 3rd round track record was abysmal. 23 picks in 11 years and you'd be hard-pressed to find more than 3 elite players.

2007: Jacoby Jones (3)
2008: Antwaun Molden (3), Steve Slaton (3)
2009: Connor Barwin (2), Antoine Caldwell (3)
2010: Ben Tate (2). Earl Mitchell (3)
2011: Brooks Reed (2), Brandon Harris (2)
2012: Devier Posey (3), Brandon Brooks (3)
2013: DJ Swearinger (2), Brennan Williams (3), Sam Montgomery (3)
2014: Xavier Su'a-Filo (2), CJ Fiedorowicz (3), Louis Nix (3)
2015: Bernard McKinney (2), Jalen Strong (3)
2016: Nick Martin (2), Braxton Miller (3)
2017: Zach Cunningham (2), D'Onta Foreman (3)

Brooks, McKinney and Cunningham were all excellent picks. There's a second tier with Barwin, Martin, maybe Earl Mitchell... Steve Slaton had one good season and Jacoby Jones proved useful-ish - I'm stretching to include those last two, for sure. The rest, though, are straight-up bad choices despite all of them being among the first 100 players selected.

 

You can't have a non existent GM. Smith did what he needed, the Texans did what they needed

 

Again... failure to look elsewhere. Failure to properly compare him against his peers.

80% of 3rd round picks are out of the league in 5 years.

Failure to acknowledge it's one big crapshoot.

 

So not only are the Texans organization mindless, they are heartless as well?
Deshaun deserves better.

 

He got a year of paid time off...

He also had a mixed success tenure that he probably should not have survived the Kubiak regime, but somehow did.

While its tragic what he's had to go through on a family level... I do not look at this as some blunder by the Texans organization. They allowed him to tend to his family while still getting paid, and they eventually parted ways without the public appearance of it being a firing.

The point of that is to save face for the employee. If the fired employee comes back and says... "Wait, I was really fired!", then there's no right way to end up doing this as far as the team is involved. If they fired Rick when they wanted to (at the height of his wife's illness), they look pretty bad. If they work out a deal to let him continue to get paid, and leave quietly, they now look bad in hindsight.

 

This post right here is why they shouldn't have hired his azz to begin with. It's also one of the reasons he's been unable to get another gm job and I have been more critical of him than most.

The McNair family took him in, enriched him, treated him like family instead of holding him accountable and he uses his dead wife for a sympathy reach around.

LMAO

 

Let Deshaun go then if he feels the way you do.

 

Paying for incompetence?

Never should have hired that POS to begin with.

 

I don't have a problem with the Texans firing Smith. He arguably should have lost his job long before then. I have a problem with how this was handled (assuming it went down the way it is being portrayed).

 

Rick Smith was certainly a mixed bag at best. I have no problem with him being let go. I have sympathy that Smith lost his wife.... however what is concerning is what this all says about Cal McNair.

Before Bob McNair passed away, there were serious concerns about whether Cal McNair would be capable of taking over the organization. He was portrayed as someone that is weak minded, easily manipulated and not terribly capable....... then stories like these break.

The Texans ownership reminds me a lot of the Chicago Bears ownership.

 

Its being portrayed as him being blind-sided... but it honestly was a full year after he'd been already "let go".

Also, if there was no verbiage or written contract stating explicitly that he'd have a job or would have a new title at the conclusion of his PTO, then I'm not sure this is the guy that should be a full time GM for anybody.