Now that the Chiefs have won Super Bowl LIV, what do the Texans need to do to make Super Bowl LV?
We asked our writers who cover the Texans to share their thoughts on a blueprint for the team's success:
JOHN MCCLAIN
At least the Texans know they got eliminated by the Super Bowl champions.
Next season, the Texans need to win the AFC South for the fifth time in six years, earn a first-round bye and perhaps even home-field advantage through the playoffs. And then they have to make sure they don’t blow a 24-point lead whether they play at home or on the road.
If the Texans hadn’t collapsed when leading 24-0 at Kansas City in the divisional round, they would have hosted the AFC Championship Game for the first time, and they would have been favored to defeat Tennessee to advance to Miami to play San Francisco. Suffering that kind of disastrous defeat should motivate everyone on the team, so they should return with a vengeance.
General manager Bill O’Brien won’t sit on his hands for coach Bill O’Brien. Expect trades around draft time and free agent signings. O’Brien needs to focus on a defense, especially the pass rush and coverage. Under new defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, the Texans have to generate more pressure on the quarterback, and they have to improve at cornerback. They have to make shrewd moves to upgrade both areas of need.
To help Deshaun Watson, the offense got most of the attention during the 2019 offseason, but it can’t be neglected. They need a fourth receiver to play with DeAndre Hopkins and Kenny Stills when Will Fuller is injured. They may need to improve right guard, where Zach Fulton has started the last two seasons. Carlos Hyde has to be re-signed, and O’Brien might consider finding a third back who can bolster the running game with Hyde and Duke Johnson.
O’Brien needs to coach better, of course. But so do his assistants. The Texans play a first-place schedule again, and they can’t let bone-headed decisions or lackluster effort cost them games like last season. They have the talent to win the AFC South again, but only time will tell if they have what it takes on the roster and on the coaching staff to get beyond the divisional round for the first time in team history.
BRIAN T. SMITH
Magic.
Or the best season of Deshaun Watson's career.
The entire defense must improve. The offensive line must improve. The tight ends must improve. Will Fuller and Kenny Stills must stay healthy. A new running back must appear.
And D4, who has been very good during his initial three pro seasons, must suddenly become great.
But you know it and I know it and 99.99 percent of Houstonians know it: The Texans aren't winning the Super Bowl unless King Bill O'Brien becomes the best head coach and general manager in the league.
That's a ton to ask for a team that's never reached the AFC championship game before.
Do you believe in magic?
If so, maybe 2020 will finally be the Texans' year.
But Watson will have to become the next Patrick Mahomes, while O'Brien must outcoach Andy Reid, Kyle Shanahan, Bill Belichick and the rest of the league.
Houston is waiting for another downtown parade.
Right now, Dusty Baker's remade Astros have a much better shot at a world title than the city's annually frustrating professional football team.
JEROME SOLOMON
Jimmy Garoppolo made his 27th NFL start on Sunday, while Pat Mahomes started just his 32nd.
Deshaun Watson has started 37 games in his career. He didn’t play on Sunday.
Garoppolo and Mahomes have Super Bowl starts on their résumés, while Watson doesn’t, because they each work for a better company and has a smarter boss.
It is that simple.
That isn’t to say that Watson will never play in the final game of the year, just that to reach that height he needs more help than the Texans have shown they can give him.
There is little reason to believe that the Chiefs and 49ers would not have played in the Super Bowl were Watson their starting quarterback. There is even less reason to believe that if Mahomes or Garoppolo were with the Texans, they would have reached the heights they did Sunday.
The organization run by Bill O’Brien, the general manager, has to be smarter. Bill O’Brien the football coach, must be better.
While the Texans made a couple much-needed moves last offseason to improve the offensive line so that Watson would have more time to be great, they allowed their defense to be ripped apart out of stinginess and stubbornness.
Wonder if Jadeveon Clowney and Kareem Jackson and Tyrann Mathieu, who also started in Sunday’s Super Bowl, could have made a difference in the Texans’ divisional loss to the Chiefs?
In the give-and-take world theory, the Texans often refuse to give and allow players who could help to take their talents elsewhere.
In the NFL, patience is not always rewarded. When you have a star-level quarterback, you have to build around him and go for it. You don’t go for it by letting players like Clowney, Jackson and Mathieu leave so you can save a few bucks or appease a cantankerous head coach.
Head coach O’Brien should be angry at GM O’Brien for letting the defense lose talent. GM O’Brien should be angry at head coach O’Brien for not talking him out of letting those talented players go.
We have seen enough of Watson to know he has championship stuff. Compare his college career to those of Mahomes and Garoppolo. When Watson was with a championship organization, playing for one of the smartest head coaches, he played for it all and won it all.
Just as Mahomes and Garoppolo did on Sunday.
AARON WILSON
For the Texans to make the big climb from being blown out by the Chiefs in the divisional round to make the Super Bowl next year, they'll have to execute a perfect offseason and a largely flawless season.
That entails a lot more than simply rewarding players they already have under contract in quarterback Deshaun Watson and offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil among others.
The Texans will have to figure out a way to add more outside talent to the roster without a first-round draft pick and a large chunk of their $200 million salary cap devoted to a star system that includes Watson, Tunsil, J.J. Watt and DeAndre Hopkins.
The Texans have to hit on key free agents while remaining within their budget to avoid cap complications in future years. This is a year where they have to spend wisely and not overrate the talent on their own roster. The Texans have to make tough decisions and be willing to move on from players whose contracts don't match their production, including offensive guard Zach Fulton and nickel back Vernon Hargreaves.
They have to make to decide whether injury-prone wide receiver and consummate deep threat Will Fuller can ever be durable enough.
The play-calling on offense, whether it's coach-general manager Bill O'Brien or offensive coordinator Tim Kelly dialing it up, must improve significantly.
New defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver has to make a fast transition to running the entire defense.
And Weaver has to get better play from his cornerbacks and a lot more consistent pass rush.
Without Watt for half the season last year due to a torn pectoral, the entire defense was exposed as deficient. Yes, the Texans had their moments on defense with timely plays, but they weren't nearly good enough. They were the primary reason why the Texans were so overmatched against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
The Texans' defense lacks speed, needs better pursuit angles and tackling and isn't intimidating anyone. Unless the defense gets a lot better, which will require a lot of investment of resources this year and in 2021, the Texans could take a step back from being the AFC South champions and doing their annual quick exit from the postseason.
The Tennessee Titans, right now, are better constructed to contend than the Texans. It's going to take a huge strategic effort for the Texans to make a deep playoff run and make it the Super Bowl next year.
And a lot of that task will fall on the shoulders of O'Brien, who has consolidated a ton of power and influence with the dual title of coach and GM, and Watson, who will need to do even more to carry a one-sided team.
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February 03, 2020 at 06:41PM
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How can Texans reach Super Bowl? - Houston Chronicle
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