BOLD TURN FOR THE TEAM
How this offseason became the most mind-blowing chapter in the Texans' complicated history
Jun 16, 2020, 2:52 pm
Photo by John Grieshop/Getty Images.
No doubt, sometimes it's difficult to figure out what's going on in Houston Texans coach Bill O'Brien's brain – clock management, a profanity-laced confrontation with a fan, giving away superstar receiver DeAndre Hopkins in a trade that could get the Arizona Cardinals arrested for highway (I-10) robbery, it goes on.
But one thing about coach O'Brien, there's no wondering where his heart lies. He is clear about his feelings on race, social injustice and human dignity. This season, O'Brien will lay it on the line. He will take a knee in full view of the public, on the field when the national anthem plays before NFL games. He is the first and only coach among America's four major pro sports to announce his intention. Do not question his courage.
"Yeah, I'll take a knee, I'm all for it," O'Brien said. Just a reminder, the Texans have had four coaches in their history. Only one has a winning record, and he's on the record supporting Black Lives Matter.
Last week, O'Brien, along with Texans owner Cal McNair and star player J.J. Watt, attended the funeral of George Floyd, the Houston native who was killed while handcuffed in police custody in Minneapolis. O'Brien, who grew up in Massachusetts and cut his coaching teeth with the New England Patriots, added, "To see discrimination of any kind against an innocent man who was murdered out of evil and ignorance, it simply breaks my heart and makes me angry. We have to do so much better. It's 400 years of slavery. It's segregation. It's police brutality."
Houston should be proud of Texans leadership. The head coach will take a knee for the national anthem. It's not a sudden awakening for O'Brien. He has supported players taking a knee in the past. Our brilliant quarterback Deshaun Watson pressured his alma mater Clemson to remove the name of a slave owner from campus buildings. And Watt, who has led the Texans onto the field waving an American flag, clapped back against a Twitter follower who said Watt would never disrespect the flag by taking a knee. Watt said, "If you still think it's about disrespecting the flag or our military, you clearly haven't been listening."
This is a bold and positive turn for the team. Only three years ago, Texans owner Bob McNair said the NFL needed to prohibit players from kneeling during the anthem. McNair, who has since passed away, told other owners that the NFL "can't have the inmates running the prison." That is not how the expression goes. His choice of words, referring to players as "inmates" and the league as "the prison," was revealing, however. How far this team has come.
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has apologized for his comment, "I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the American flag." As Watt says, Brees has been listening. Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield promises that he "absolutely" will kneel for the anthem this season. He has been listening, too.
With NFL commissioner Roger Goodell now supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, what now for quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was the first player to kneel for the anthem in 2016, and was out of the league one year later? He risked everything for what he believed, lost his job and many millions of dollars, but has never wavered from protesting police brutality against African-Americans. He will be remembered on the right side of history.
Reportedly at least one team has inquired about Kap's services. Wouldn't it be something if the New England Patriots sign the outspoken quarterback and he leads them to the Super Bowl, where the Pats face the Dallas Cowboys, owned by the suddenly silent Jerry Jones? That wouldn't be a football game, it'd be the cultural event of the century.
Kaepernick faces long odds of taking an NFL field (again), taking a knee (again) and taking his team to the Super Bowl (again). Been there, done all three. But Kaepernick hasn't thrown a pass that counted in four years. Even premiere athletes rarely come back from extended time away and achieve their former success. There have been exceptions, however:
Ted Williams volunteered for military duty during World War II and the Korean conflict and missed five years of his prime with the Red Sox. He returned to baseball and completed his legendary Hall of Fame career.
Muhammad Ali was banned from boxing for 3-1/2 years after he refused induction into the Army, but came back to re-capture the heavyweight title.
Michael Jordan helped the Chicago Bulls win three NBA titles, left to fulfill a dream of playing baseball, and returned for three more basketball championships.
Kaepernick, while banished for years, just might catch lightning in a bottle. He has exquisite skills, is a proven winner, and continued to work out while in exile. If anybody can … here's hoping.
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There's no denying that this year's World Series champs (LA Dodgers) have some serious firepower on their roster. And one of the ways they were able to assemble such a talented team involved players like Shohei Ohtani being willing to differ their money.
Just this week, there was some speculation that the Yankees could do something similar when restructuring Gerrit Cole's contract, that would allow them more flexibility in the present.
The Yankees ended up calling Cole's bluff about opting out, and no adjustment was made to the contract.
But this situation got us thinking, would the Astros consider a tactic like this to maximize the roster? At this point, it doesn't seem all that likely. Just last year, the team handed out a $95 million contract to Josh Hader, without any differed money.
The other factor that also has to come into play is the tax threshold. The organization would have to give the okay to go over it again in order to make a splash signing this offseason. Which unfortunately does not sound like the plan right now when listening to GM Dana Brown at the Winter Meetings.
Astros pitcher hires a new agent
Now that MLB free agency is in full swing, most of the attention moving forward will be focused on players like Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto.
But for Astros fans, there might be someone else to keep an eye on this offseason and next. Starting pitcher Hunter Brown quietly hired super agent Scott Boras recently.
With Brown still another season away from his first year of arbitration, he should be with the Astros for the foreseeable future.
However, the hiring of Boras does raise some interesting questions. Why make the move now? Certainly, Brown could use some more cash, as he's set to make less than a million in 2025.
Perhaps Brown wants to land some HEB commercials to fatten his wallet. And if Bregman does leave the team in free agency, a spot will open up for another player, in theory. And three of the players in the HEB ads are represented by Boras (Jose Altuve, Lance McCullers Jr. and Bregman).
Jeremy Pena has been stacking cash from Taquerias Arandas for several years now, maybe Brown would like an opportunity to do an endorsement similar to that.
I say all this half kidding, but Brown does look like the future ace of this staff, and I'm sure there are plenty of advertisers that would have interest in Hunter.
There is another element that could have initiated the hiring of Boras. Would Brown be willing to sign an extension early with the Astros similar to the deal the team made with Cristian Javier?
Their situations are actually pretty comparable, except Javier was one year further into his career (3 years of MLB service time) and eligible for arbitration before agreeing to the extension.
If Brown was heading into arbitration this offseason, it wouldn't be surprising at all for the Astros to be considering a long-term deal with him that buys up all his arbitration years. The 'Stros love these types of contract extensions. We've seen them do it with Bregman, the aforementioned Javier, and others.
One of the main differences though between Brown and Javier is their rookie year numbers. Brown only pitched 20.1 innings in his first season (2022). While Javier pitched 54.1 innings his rookie year. However, his rookie season was in 2020, so Javier completed a full year of service time despite the shortened season. Whereas Brown didn't get called up until September 2022.
Another difference is performance. Javier never posted an ERA over 3.55 in his first three seasons. As opposed to Brown, who had a disastrous year in 2023. He made 29 starts, recording an ERA over 5.
It wasn't until May of 2024 that Brown started using his two-seam fastball with great success and becoming one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League.
The Astros had a bigger sample size to judge Javier. However, if Brown has another quality season in 2025, Houston and Brown should definitely be having conversations about an extension. Especially with Framber Valdez being in the final year of his contract in 2025. Hunter could be the unquestioned ace one year from now.
Still, though, there are some concerns with handing out these early extensions. For example, if the Astros had it to do over again, would they still extend Javier?
After receiving his extension before the 2023 season, he went on to post the highest ERA of his career (4.56), and then blew out his elbow in May 2024.
And if we're going by Luis Garcia's recovery timeline from Tommy John surgery, we may not see Javier pitch at all in 2025.
So even with a sample size of three terrific seasons, the Javier extension looks like a miss with the benefit of hindsight. It will be interesting to see if that deal impacts Dana Brown's decision-making going forward.
Especially since Javier was Dana's first big contract extension as the Astros GM.
Be sure to watch the video as we discuss how the Astros can get the most out of their roster, the pros and cons of signing Hunter Brown early, and much more!
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo discuss varied Astros topics. The post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon. Find all via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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