- 8 minutes ago
The Texans and quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson have agreed to part ways, and ITL breaks down what the move means for the offense and for C.J. Stroud’s development moving forward, including whether this signals bigger changes ahead.
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00:00There is a lot here because this is a dude who is at the intersection of two of the biggest
00:05stories for the Texans in this offseason offense that was, if you look at the numbers, maybe OK, but honestly,
00:12just not effective enough, did not score enough touchdowns.
00:15And then a quarterback who a lot of people have questions on how much they believe in and who is,
00:21you know, who is reportedly, and I say reportedly, we know, who has a strong relationship with Gerard Johnson, who
00:27Gerard Johnson was supposed to have the ear of very well.
00:30And let's be honest, the Gerard Johnson had not been able to get C.J. Stroud to fully recognize his
00:37potential in the way that you wanted to with the Texans.
00:40So now he is gone. Where does your mind go immediately, John Lopez, when you hear this news?
00:44Two places. First, on the parting of ways, not a firing.
00:50It makes me think that Gerard Johnson may have a job here next season, if not here, like with the
00:56Texans?
00:56No, no job. I was like, whoa, OK, with the in the NFL, if not here in the next coming
01:03weeks, because I'm just feeling that this was a parting of ways.
01:08Secondly, on Gerard, nice timing, fellas. Thanks for giving him a shot. OK, thanks for giving him a shot, Nick.
01:14To get out there and go look for a job. Yeah, this is the thing.
01:17This is what? When did the season end for the Texans?
01:21I have wiped the date out of my mind, but it was it was the Sunday before MLK Junior Day.
01:26I remember that for sure.
01:27Yeah, January 19th. Is that what you said?
01:29Yeah, that is what Sean Pendergast said.
01:31Yeah. So five weeks ago, six weeks ago, over a month, that's that's they did him wrong there.
01:36First of all, if it was their decision, which also tells me it wasn't just their decision was kind of
01:40a mutual thing, but maybe which I know is hard to believe.
01:45But yeah, because typically whenever we see the part, I mutually agree with the part ways we are.
01:49Somebody got fired then. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it's always more complicated than we know.
01:54But a lot of times we go. Somebody got fired. Yeah.
01:56The timing of this one does make it feel like this.
02:00Well, maybe it doesn't. Right. Because this is one of the questions.
02:03Is this a panic move or was this plan?
02:05Well, if this was planned, this is nasty. This is what I think.
02:07This is what I think happened. Number one, because this timing and as much as I'm criticizing the Texans for
02:14waiting this long to ultimately come to this decision,
02:17I think it also reflects at best there was a lot of conversation about, you know, should we do this?
02:25Should you do you want to stay? Do you want to go, et cetera?
02:28At worst, there was conflict about whether or not Gerard Johnson should should stay because even the Texans know that
02:34they did him wrong here.
02:35You know, if they waited until this week, you know, today to make this decision or yesterday or whatever, that
02:42that that's that's not the way the NFL should operate.
02:45That's number one. So I go to the my bigger point, my second.
02:49And I think this is the biggest takeaway with Gerard moving on and them parting ways.
02:54C.J. Stroud. This is a C.J. Stroud story.
02:57This is absolutely positively a C.J. Stroud story.
03:00He is becoming the most frustrating thing you can be in sports.
03:04Some might say the worst thing you can be in sports.
03:07A coach killer. He's a coach killer. Let's let's let's go back and look at this.
03:11That is heavy. Well, well, let's go. Let's go back and look at this.
03:15They're not going to. They're not going to. I love when Finkie does.
03:19But all that's all that's fitting here, man. Those are heavy words.
03:23That's a heavy label to put on a dude in the in a professional.
03:26I know we have LeBron here, man. Well, let me let me lay it out and you guys tell me.
03:29All right. All right. So you have Bobby Sloick coming in record rookie year when he's a rookie and he's
03:36saying, yes, sir, no, sir.
03:37I'll do whatever you want. Then the second year, it all falls apart.
03:41And so they move on from from Bobby Sloick. Where's Bobby Sloick now?
03:45Oh, that's right. He's an offensive coordinator. The league respected what he was doing.
03:49Then you go back and you bring in Jerry Szaplinski, you know, one of the John Carroll boys.
03:54In fact, I think he was Nick Cacero's running back when Nick Cacero was was the quarterback to help, you
04:00know, with with the offense.
04:02Offensive assistant who. Yeah, we'll talk more about it.
04:05But remember, Aaron Wilson had had some reporting that if they did make a move, that it felt like Jerry
04:09Szaplinski, that guy that he's going to take over a quarterback.
04:12It does feel like he's leader in the clubhouse. We could talk more about that here.
04:14And now you have Gerard Johnson, who they go back to when C.J. Stroud was 15, 16 years old.
04:21And all of a sudden, you know, they move on from Gerard Johnson.
04:27I mean, let's let's look at this from what it really is.
04:30They're trying to find something that connects with C.J. Stroud. That's it.
04:35I mean, this is a C.J. Stroud story. And in a in a different kind of way, this is
04:42a Nick Cacero story for them to wait this long.
04:44There had to be a lot of discussion between Cacero and D'Amico Ryans. There had to have been.
04:48Yeah, those are the two most prominent figures in your team outside of C.J. Stroud on a player level.
04:53Should we? Should we not? Should we? Should we not? They waited damn near six weeks.
04:57Damn near six weeks to ultimately come to the decision.
05:00And and so Nick Cacero won won this argument, it seems.
05:05And Nick Cacero is going to Nick. This is Nick Cacero's offense.
05:09One hundred percent. I've been sort of talking about that here and there.
05:13There's no doubt in my mind that Nick Cacero is pulling all the strings on the offense.
05:16Brings in Nick Cayley. By the way, Gerard Johnson is interviewing for offensive coordinator jobs recently.
05:23Yeah. Yeah. And breaking news. And they don't. Well, it's out there. It's been reported.
05:28He he was, you know, interviewing last year, even after the bad season with other teams and they don't promote
05:36him.
05:37They bring in who? That's right. Another John Carroll guy, Nick Cayley, to run the offense.
05:41And the passing game becomes what it is. And CJ Stroud became, you know, what he was in the postseason.
05:49Look, the Gerard Johnson element of this is clearly, you know, part of the story.
05:55They had to figure something out with CJ Stroud. But this is about CJ Stroud.
05:59Well, but that's interesting because the way you start talking about it, obviously, quarterback coach, he's the quarterback in that
06:04room.
06:04It's going to be about CJ Stroud. But the way you're talking about it, I can make the argument that
06:08this is more about supporting Nick Cayley.
06:10It is a fair criticism that has been levied when you bring in an offense coordinator and he don't bring
06:15nobody but an offensive assistant with him.
06:17Yeah. For his staff. Yeah. Now, I, I, I. By the way, real quick, who does that point to? Nick
06:23Casario.
06:24Does it? Yes. Because if you're like, hey, all the people that are here that were previously helping run a
06:29different system,
06:30they're going to stay and you bring in an offense coordinator. I don't know.
06:34But he's a Casario guy. Hey, thank you for the opportunity. I'll be your offensive coordinator. Who's on my staff?
06:42I mean, it, it, the only thing that I can say with all certainty is that it was one of
06:46those things that was always going to be a tough,
06:48a tough thing to, to navigate. And it's probably part of why you had such a rough start as you
06:54were trying to cobble together and figure out what this Houston offense was.
06:57It's one of the things that I go back to where we're asking like, hey, what is your offense?
07:00And like, hey, you know, this isn't, this isn't a Rams offense. This isn't a Patriots. This is a Houston
07:04offense.
07:04I'm like, all right, cool. But what is that? And it was clear that it took them a while to
07:07get there.
07:08Maybe this is some level of, can we clarify what we're doing with everybody getting to the right spot?
07:13Or maybe you're right. Maybe it is as simple as, as someone on the, on the 713 said here on
07:19the text line,
07:21that this was a situation where, you know, you need to get rid of, they use the word enabler, CJ's
07:27enabler in Gerard Johnson, just a different voice.
07:31And I don't even know, sometimes it doesn't, a change in a position does not even have to be about
07:36better or worse, just different.
07:38I'm, I'm very intrigued to see what this is. And if you have maybe more of a synergy and alignment
07:43overall with this offense.
07:45Yeah. And if CJ Stroud like sticks to it, cause that was one of the things we talked about.
07:49Did it feel like he was sticking to the plan in the, in the post season?
07:52It very much felt like he was going, he went into business for himself and that can't happen.
07:55Well, and at minimum, whether you think Gerard Johnson just didn't connect, he was an enabler.
08:00Whether you think that, or you think, you know, that, that, that the Texans, you know,
08:05this is a CJ Stroud problem and Nick Asario's kind of pulling all the strings over there, puppet master,
08:11whatever you want to call with the offense somewhere in between is this.
08:14It's, it's still about CJ Stroud.
08:16They still have to figure out whether it's Gerard's fault or someone else's fault.
08:22It's still about, you got to figure something out with CJ Stroud and making,
08:26and making it work in this offense.
08:28How much of the Nick Cayley coming into the staff that was previously there might,
08:31previously there might be a sign of a small, maybe insignificant even,
08:36but fissure between the brain trust that we have been told is so damn strong.
08:40Cause you're purporting this.
08:41And I think that it's fair to point to the connections that are there.
08:43Nick Cayley and his guys,
08:45the other guys are the guys that Bobby Sloan came with that you could probably put
08:48as D'Amico's guys, guys that he has a level of loyalty to.
08:52How much of that is the, you know, the friction there between those like, Hey,
08:56should we, if we're bringing a coordinator,
08:57you should be able to build this out.
08:58But D'Amico having a loyalty to some of these assistants that didn't do anything
09:02wrong,
09:02but you still want to find a way to have a place for them like someone like
09:05Gerard Johnson.
09:06Well, the one good thing about this from a Texas perspective,
09:09from a Casario perspective is they are all now on the same page.
09:13They are all pulling in the same direction in terms of philosophically,
09:18because Casario, you know, Patriots and John Carroll,
09:21Nick Cayley, Patriots and John Carroll,
09:22Szaplinski, Patriots and John Carroll,
09:24Cole Popovich, Patriots and John Carroll.
09:26Yeah.
09:26So at least now there's not that other guy that, you know,
09:29is a quarterback's coach, but,
09:31but from various systems go back to Kevin O'Connell and, you know,
09:35some of the West coast stuff that Gerard has really cut his teeth on.
09:38So there was one element in that room that was more West coast,
09:43Sloic style, O'Connell style, you know, and all that.
09:47Whereas now it's all Patriots, Patriots, Patriots, Patriots.
09:50This is interesting because the secondary,
09:52another question that I really want to ask is, are we,
09:55are we sure this is a good move or a bad move?
09:57Cause you're, you're describing like a diversity in that room.
10:00And I thought that, um, that Mike Vrabel, who was,
10:05who was talked to, I think it was yesterday.
10:07He had a quote about diversity in your hiring and your coaching staff and the
10:11benefit of that.
10:13There is something to be said for having, you know,
10:16a staff that is aligned, but they also did have a diversity in their coaching
10:20staff.
10:20And this is one step that pulls you.
10:22And I'm not talking about Gerard Johnson being an African-American man.
10:25Male, obviously that's something, but a diversity in ideas.
10:28Correct.
10:28As you were describing, like trees and stuff.
10:30Yes.
10:31And how much does that, how much does that impact that?
10:34Is that a good thing?
10:35Does that help them?
10:36They do have that going for them.
10:38They're all on the same page now.
10:40Yeah.
10:40You know, we'll talk about, I mean,
10:41obviously this is the big story here in the city of Houston,
10:44because it pertains to, again, the two biggest things,
10:46CJ Stroud and finding a way to put your last,
10:49this last ditch attempts is to make it attempts rather to make it sure that he
10:53is the type of guy that you want to pay.
10:55And then to get this offense right,
10:56to match a defense that was absolutely super bowl worthy.
10:58This is the biggest thing that's happening right now.
11:01So I find it very,
11:02very interesting that this has happened.
11:03And I love all the texts that are coming in.
11:05713-572-460.
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