Former LB to work as a strength coach and help with the defense

Report: Cushing returns to Texans as coach

Cody Stoots
Jan 29, 2019, 12:10 pm
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One of the most popular and polarizing Texans in the team's history will return to the franchise as a coach.

Cushing has long been heralded for the way he approaches his body and workouts. Many Texans over the years have praised his work ethic in the weight room as well as his dedication to the supplements and nutrition necessary to have his body operate at a high level.

Cushing played in nine seasons with the Texans playing in 109 games totaling 696 tackles, 14.5 sacks, and nine interceptions. He was the Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2009 as well being elected to the Pro Bowl the next year. He had two seasons derailed by injury with the Texans. In 2012 he tore his ACL. The next year he broke his leg.

His second and last season in football were marred by violations of the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing substances. Cushing missed four games in 2010 and 10 games in 2017. Cushing and the Texans pursued a reduction of the suspension in 2010 claiming Cushing violated the policy due to a rare condition called overtrained athlete syndrome. It even went as far as Bob McNair meeting with Roger Goodell pleading his case.

Cushing has always maintained his innocence during the suspensions. In 2018 on former teammate Arian Foster's podcast Cushing said he was blindsided by his failure early in his career. He also said on his second failure a supplement he took that was allowed by the NFL turned into another banned substance in his body.

When asked by Foster if he had ever "juiced," aka taken steroids, Cushing said no and believed it would be very hard due to the amount of testing in the NFL to blatantly cheat.

Cody's Take

People are going to lose their mind about a guy who was accused of cheating is helping with the strength program. That's silly. Cushing isn't introducing anything new these players couldn't get if they didn't already want it. His process of beating it, if that's what happened, doesn't work so no reason to cry foul about him helping them hide it either. He's always had an idea for what it takes in the weight room to be successful and players loved working out with him. He is also heralded as one of the better football minds from the linebacker position in Texans history so his contributions there can only help.

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Plenty of bad but recently some great on the short week game for Texans

Throwback Thursdays: Texans history is so so in Thursday games

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This is a list and a few thoughts from the five Thursday Night Football games where Bill O'Brien has been the head coach for the Texans.

2014: The almost comeback for the ages - Texans lose 33-28

This game sucked early, but then almost sucked a lot less. It still sucked in the end but it had one of J.J. Watt's best plays of his career.

The Colts jumped out to an early lead thanks to a Pat McAfee onside kick and a huge T.Y. Hilton play from Andrew Luck. It was one of the signature Hilton games in his time against the Texans. The Colts would lead 24-0 at the end of the first quarter. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Arian Foster along with some stellar defense would get the Texans back in the game but it wasn't enough.

This was the first Thursday game under Bill O'Brien and would be right in the middle of a three game losing streak coming off a bad overtime loss to the Cowboys and ahead of a Monday disaster against the Steelers.

2015: Sick Hasselbeck makes Texans fans sicker - Texans lose 27-20

I always describe this game as the one where Matt Hasselbeck was crapping his pants on the sidelines and still beat the Texans. I am not too wrong about this. He was so sick he didn't practice and yet still had enough for the Colts to beat the Texans. He was also 40 years old too by the way.

This one hurt as it was Andre Johnson's return to Houston but he was wearing a Colts uniform. He scored the opening touchdown and it was pretty much the only good game he had for the Colts that season. He also scored what would be the deciding touchdown in this one.

It also marked one of the quarterback indecision moments of Bill O'Brien's tenure. Ryan Mallett took a big hit and asked out of the game and Brian Hoyer returned to the game and played pretty well. He completed a long pass as time expired to Jaelen Strong (remember that name!?) to get the Texans their first touchdown. Trialing by seven Hoyer threw an interception in Colts territory ending the Texans comeback attempt.

2016: Brissett blows out Brock - Texans lose 27-0

This is one of the worst losses of the Bill O'Brien era. The Patriots were down to their third-string quarterback in the midst of a Tom Brady suspension and Jimmy Garoppolo's injury. Enter Jacoby Brissett and the best coach of all-time to torture Brock Osweiler and the Texans. Oh, by the way, Gronk was hurt too I think.

A field goal by New England put the first points on the board and the Texans fumbled the ensuing kickoff which then moments later saw Brissett take a rush 27 yards to the house. The Texans wouldn't get on the Patriots side of the field until there was a couple of minutes left in the third quarter and they were down 20-0.

We should have all known Osweiler stunk when he couldn't score in this game, but it took me a few more weeks before I really jumped off the Brock train.

2017: The first one for the chosen one - Texans win 13-9

Tom Savage was benched and Deshaun Watson's era began. A short week after sitting behind Savage in training camp and then getting thrown to the Jaguars defense in the second half of week one didn't matter to Watson. It was the start of his coming out party.

The defense kicked ass in this game helping Watson get the first win. The big run above was the moment many of us will never forget when it comes to this Thursday night affair.

2018: Welcome Back Brock - Texans win 42-23

Ah yes, the Brock Osweiler revenge game! The Texans had won four straight after a dreadful start to the season and were coming off a physical game with Jacksonville. This was Brock Osweiler's chance for revenge on the team that jettisoned him after the 2016 season.

There would be little revenge. Credit the Dolphins, they kept the game fairly close until Deshaun Watson started cooking in the second half. Four touchdowns in the second half was quite the efficient showing on just 10 pass attempts.

It was a fun Thursday night contest especially given the Texans history on the short week under O'Brien.

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