tl;dr post coming up... For the entirety of Kubiak era in Houston, perhaps the most important word within the organization is stability. We have the same philosophies used by the Broncos for the decade before. We basically homegrown most of our players, develop them, and play them. Then retain the good ones. But looking around, it seems like no one else with success is doing this. Examples: 1. Texans a year ago. We changed our DC, injected new ideas into our system, new FA acquisitions, new draft strategies. Result? The best draft pick ever in franchise history, arguably the best DB/FA in franchise history, by far the best defense in franchise history, and by far the best result in franchise history. A year later, we maintain the status quo, and no improvement in result. Perhaps even a step back, because we had our starting QB and still couldn't improve on the result. 2. San Francisco. Coming off the best season in franchise history, they went for Peyton Manning, failed, and went to Kapaernick at the first chance that he showed to be starter worthy. They had a "Schaub" as their QB, felt he wasn't good enough, attempted to address the issue in both draft and FA, and is now possibly the most dominant team in the NFL. 3. Seattle. Similar to SF. Drafted a QB, sign a FA, had a camp battle despite traditional views that QBs are groomed, not competed for. And result in Russell Wilson becoming the one of the most efficient QBs in the NFL as a rookie. 4. Patriots. In the previous year, drafted 2 TEs not for the sake of drafting them, but to create huge mismatches. Had a 13-3 season but very flawed. Adjusted their offense in the offseason to become more balanced, resulting in a great rushing attack along with Brady. Drafted athletic players on the defensive front, trading up to get the guys they want. Then traded for Talib to shore up their weak secondary. They made changes again and again despite being possibly the best franchise in recent NFL history. 5. Atlanta. The Texans of the NFC. Pretty good, makes the playoffs, but no one thinks they'd do anything in the playoffs. Then they changed coordinators, changed system, and they are hosting the Conference Championships. 6. Baltimore. Changed their entire offense in the offseason, thinking they need to improve on it. Didn't work well, fired their OC, and made more changes IN SEASON. Result? Flacco with two nice games to get them back to the conference championships, despite a much more maligned defense. While there's risk with change, it does seem to be a common theme that you must try new ideas to truly succeed. You HAVE to take risks, constantly try to shore up weaknesses and accentuate your strengths. For all the focus on playcalling or Schaub, I think overall this is the biggest problem for our team. No injection of new ideas and new thinking.
I'd say the team was smelling themselves too much and didn't pay attention to the smaller flaws that existed. They knew giving up Winston and Briesel that they'd have problems on the right and drafted 3 offensive linemen for it. Hell, they stock piled multiple offensive linemen throughout the season and cut Return man Trindon Holliday just to keep an extra guard they had on the practice squad that was rumored to have gained interest from another team who they never used in a game. We also essentially came into the season with two and half TEs, and while Casey and Graham showed they could step up a little, the lack of variety we had when we could play some one with Dressen's size and strength lead to issues with blocking and goal line drops or bad passes that none of our TEs were capable of. We weren't able to get mismatches like we used to. Meanwhile, defensively they let DeMeco go because of money, sign a few vets because they believed Sharpton would eventually get healthy and start with Cushing. Sharpton got healthy but Cushing was gone and eventually Sharpton got hurt again. Not to mention outside of your rookie, the OLB unit never put pressure on the QB essentially leaving the pass rush to your DEs who stepped up but could have used more consistent play from the haphazard linebacker unit. The issues with safety comes from our defense never finding depth like it had before when Demps went down with injury and even with his return he was not the same and we wound up playing Keo (who at times looked lost and lack speed). All this stuff essentially comes down to not taking a better look at the small flaws of the team such as depth in key positions and not developing them to be effective in time for the post season.
Our OC hire (provided Dennison leaves) is going to be a critical juncture in the Kubiak era. We either get a yes man and Schaub's inevitable decline continues. Or we get new ideas and Schaub drives the ship to new heights or off the cliff entirely.
Is Dennison really going to leave? I think there's about a 5% chance that he's gone. I don't think anybody is giving him the chance to be a head coach.
