August 8, 2007
Chapter 17:
Expansion Blues
by Bob Hulsey
HoustonProFootball.com
With a new stadium, a new logo, a front office and a coaching staff in place, the newly-named Houston Texans still needed warm bodies to play football on Sundays. The first steps of new General Manager Charley Casserly were remarkably successful.
Casserly had a tough act to follow. The Jacksonville Jaguars and the Carolina Panthers, expansion teams from 1995, both made the playoffs in their second year of existence. The key was that these teams had no “dead money”, old contracts of departed players that still needed to be paid so they could offer more money to free agents than established teams under the salary cap. The league decided they were a bit too generous with the Jags and Panthers.
The rebuilt Cleveland Browns were next, beginning in 1999, choosing to build their team the traditional way with flotsam from existing clubs and high draft choices.
Leading into 2002, Casserly was given a choice. He could either select at least 30 players off the expansion lists, much like the Browns did, or he could take fewer players as long as their combined salaries reached a certain percentage of the Texans’ salary cap.
Casserly realized that some franchises (including the Jaguars) had overextended themselves and had entered “salary cap hell”, a condition where they would be forced to dump key players to get below the looming league-wide cap ceiling. He began working the phones and made deals with three franchises – the Jaguars, the New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens.
He agreed to relieve them of some players with big contracts in return for making available players Casserly wanted. When the list of players eligible for the expansion draft came out, people were surprised at some of the big names that were on it.
The biggest name was left tackle Tony Boselli, a Pro Bowler in Jacksonville who was considered an elite player but also one with an injured knee and a bad shoulder. Boselli was the first name chosen during a ceremony held in Houston hosted by owner Bob McNair. After further surgeries did not prove successful, Boselli retired having never played a down for Houston.
Defense dominated most of the rest of the expansion draft. Cornerbacks Aaron Glenn and Marcus Coleman were claimed from the Jets. Defensive tackles Gary Walker and Seth Payne were taken from the Jaguars. Linebacker Jamie Sharper and kick returner Jermaine Lewis were acquired from the Ravens. Little else of note was taken other than from these three teams but Head Coach Dom Capers instantly had a competitive defense to build around. It was a brilliant move.
With the defense off to a good start, Casserly set about using the college draft to construct his offense. The new franchise needed a face. They found one in Fresno State quarterback David Carr, a handsome clean-living married man with a rocket arm and giddy enthusiasm. He was compared favorably to Dallas legend Troy Aikman. Casserly declared that Carr was his guy long before April and Carr was inked before Draft Day arrived. He fit exactly what McNair envisioned for a franchise quarterback. The first day also brought offensive linemen Chester Pitts and Fred Weary as well as wide receiver Jabar Gaffney.
The Texans’ first game was at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH where they lost to the New York Giants. They won their first preseason game the next week when they edged the New Orleans Saints. Reliant Stadium was opened with losses to Miami and Tampa Bay.
The first regular season game for the Texans was a prime time affair on ESPN against their instant in-state rivals, the Dallas Cowboys. Even the rosiest of Texan fans could hardly believe their eyes when Carr took the opening drive and marched the Texans down the field, climaxing with a touchdown throw to tight end Billy Miller who spun and stretched into the end zone. The crowd of over 69,000 fans roared in delight.
In the fourth quarter, Carr broke a 10-10 tie with a 65-yard bomb to Corey Bradford to retake the lead. From there, the defense took over, sacking Quincy Carter for a safety to complete the 19-10 stunner. Joy reigned throughout Houston like nothing since the Rockets won their second NBA title.
The Texans won only four games in their inaugural season but each were memorable in their own way. After five straight losses, Houston surprised the Jaguars, 21-19, for their first road victory after Gaffney and Glenn teamed on a trick play punt return that set up the winning field goal by Kris Brown. Four weeks later, they held on to nip the Giants, 16-14, to avenge their first preseason loss.
For Capers, the best win was saved for last. The former Steeler defensive coordinator shocked his old bosses with a 24-6 upset while producing a record-low 47 yards of offense. The Texans got three touchdowns on a fumble return by Kenny Wright and two interception returns by Glenn.
“They should take the game ball and throw it at us,” a bemused Carr said afterwards of his inept offense.
The win was actually emblematic of the contrast between the young offense and the veteran defense. The defense often kept the game close but the offense struggled to hold their end of the bargain. Without Boselli, the offensive line had trouble protecting Carr or opening running lanes. Watching the Texans in 2002 was sometimes painful and sometimes dull but it was not a bad effort for a debut season.
Two offensive weapons were added in the 2003 draft. Wide receiver Andre Johnson from the University of Miami was to be the go-to receiver Carr needed to open up the offense. Running back Domanick Davis of LSU was taken in the fourth round as a kick returner and third-down back but quickly established he could be much more.
The Texans progressed from four wins to five wins that season, highlighted by a season-opening upset of the Dolphins and home wins over Carolina and Atlanta. Perhaps the most memorable game was at home against the Jaguars when Capers passed up a certain tying field goal in the closing seconds and gambled deep in Jacksonville territory. He was rewarded when Carr dived just over the goalline on fourth down with :02 left for a 21-17 thriller.
Houston also lost nailbiters to the Jets, New England and Tennessee to prove they were not to be taken lightly. Carolina and New England, two of the clubs the Texans took to the wire, played in the Super Bowl held at Reliant Stadium that January.
Improvement continued in 2004 as the Texans swept Bud Adams’ ex-Oilers, shut out the Jaguars and entered the final game of the season at home against the lowly Browns poised to claim their first .500 season. Instead, the Texans laid a 22-14 egg that looked uglier than the score might imply. So upset were some that Carr’s wife was showered with beer from the stands above. It was the beginning of the end.
The personnel magic that Casserly had shown in the beginning turned sour. He made some foolish trades around the draft, including dealing four draft picks in order to select end/linebacker Jason Babin and dealing two high picks to the Raiders for lackadaisical cornerback Phillip Buchanon the following year.
The offensive line never came together over the first three seasons and totally collapsed in the fourth. Free agent upgrades to the line did not pan out and neither did the projects Casserly brought in through the draft. Carr took a beating that would have merited an R-rating from the MPAA and began expressing frustration, rushing throws and forcing mistakes.
But perhaps the worst development was the aging of the defense that had been built through the expansion draft. Glenn, Coleman and Sharper were released. Walker and Payne missed substantial time with injuries and suitable reinforcements were few. With both the offense and defense crumbling, a letdown was bound to happen.
Houston started the 2005 campaign with six straight losses before outlasting the Browns, 19-16. They would then lose six more.
Towards the end, suspicions were raised that the Texans were actually trying to lose. Exhibit A was a 33-27 overtime loss to the Rams where rookie backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick led St. Louis from a 21-point halftime deficit and a 10-point deficit in the final :42 of regulation time to tie it and then win in the extra quarter. Exhibit B was the next week in Baltimore where the Ravens won, 16-15, on an interception return of a botched Carr screen pass after neither offense had had much success all day. Exhibit C came the following week when Brown had one field goal attempt blocked and shanked another in the closing minutes of a 13-10 loss at Tennessee.
The presumed prize was Heisman-winning scatback Reggie Bush who was earning praise to such an extent that one might actually think about throwing games just to get him. The Texans insisted that wasn’t the case and, to keep Oliver Stone from putting them in his next picture, went out and beat Arizona, 30-19.
That led to the season’s final weekend in San Francisco. Dubbed the “Bush Bowl”, the two-win Texans and the three-win 49ers vied for the coveted first overall pick in the draft. The Texans “won”, losing 20-17 in a game that dragged into overtime before Joe Nedney provided the clincher. Conspiracy buffs will note that Brown missed another field goal attempt that would have won it for the Texans in regulation.
By that time, the stench around Reliant Park was so pervasive that heads would soon roll. McNair brought in former coach Dan Reeves as an advisor to evaluate his organization. Over the next 16 months, Capers, Casserly and Carr would all be sent packing. Fans, meanwhile, fought like Michael Vick’s pit bulls over whether the Texans should choose Bush or local legend Vince Young in the draft. The answer they got surprised everyone.
Bob Hulsey has a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He has worked in print and radio covering sports throughout Texas since 1976. He presently works for a telecommunications company in Austin.
David Carr Home
Return to Houston Pro Football
If you have a question, comment or suggestion, contact Bob
Archive
Catch up on past installments of Pro Log: The History of Houston Pro Football
