The good news for Houston Texans fans in the wake of Gary Kubiak's firing is that they are this much closer to drafting their franchise's first franchise quarterback. Wade Phillips is your interim head coach and it doesn't appear like the Texans have too many surprises up there sleeves over the season's final three weeks. Apparently, there was an army of Scandal gladiators who were upset that the ABC thriller was benched for the Houston-area ABC affiliate to air the Texans vs. Jaguars matchup.
The poor masochists who did tune in were watching the wrong football game. While the Texans were wrapping themselves in chains, tying an anchor to their legs before walking to the edge of the tank for one last splash and sink to the bottom to secure their draft positioning, Teddy Bridgewater was playing his final home game at Louisville. Tanking For Teddy is three weeks from being deemed a success.
Case Keenum has been a serviceable quarterback for a tank season, but the Houston Texans are in prime position to take a quarterback first overall in a talent-rich draft and rise back from the depths of their nadir. Even without Marcus Mariota, the top-four quarterbacks in the upcoming draft would each grade out higher than Geno Smith did in 2013. Like Vince Young was seven years ago, Johnny Manziel is the dream candidate for the Texans fan base, but this is a business, not a Shaakespeare play. Don't expect the Texans to listen to Houston's 808 and heartbeats.
Bridgewater was held in check for three quarters on Thursday night, until the fourth when his started turning green, his jersey got too small and he hulked out on the Bearcats.
If you're not sold on the quarterback affectionately known as Teddy B., he gave the national audience two reasons to hop on the rickety bandwagon before it gets souped-up after he declares for the draft.
#Texans fire HC Gary Kubiak. Wade Phillips: 3rd head coach in franchise history (since '02). #Steelers: 3 head coaches since 1969 #NFL
— Russell S. Baxter (@BaxFootballGuru) December 6, 2013
There is no authority in the Texans locker room or front office. Kubiak was considered a great offensive-minded coach. Instead, Mike Shanahan's name is being floated a possible replacement for Kubiak. However, that's contingent on the Redskins firing Shanahan. After getting two years to mishandle RGIII, he may have a pristine quarterback like Bridgewater to smudge his greasy fingers on. Shanahan's shown a pretty good knack for getting out of the way for veteran quarterbacks on their way out the league. When it comes to young, impressionable quarterbacks, he's the coach your mother warned you not to hang out with.
The Texans coaching search was rumored to take them to the college ranks as well where Stanford's David Shaw and Art Briles are considered leading candidates. Shaw is a defensive guy, but Briles is interesting because he was also the coach who recruited Keenum to Houston and RGIII to Baylor. However owner Bob McNair dashed those dreams when he narrowed the search for candidate's with NFL coaching experience.
The nightmare scenario is that they steal a few games from Indianapolis, Broncos or Titans, fall out of the top-10 and go all in with Wade. Keep your heads up Houston fans. There's a light at the end of a tunnel. Just make sure it's not a train before you step back onto the tracks.
