The Houston Texans are talking Kaepernick which tells you just far off the rails this team has gone.
As an admitted fan of the 49ers I've always been sympathetic to Collin. He got caught up in a dysfunctional team environment and then cast aside by a 2nd generation head coach who didn't want to deal with the drama.
Yes, he's a polarizing figure, much of that he brings onto himself in tandem with his activist girlfriend. And yes, there are big (huge) questions regarding whether or not he can actually still play to the level he did during the Super Bowl run. But the issues with Kaepernick's protests are overblown and have become politicized to the point that the original intent has been washed away in a wave of psuedo-patriotism.
Ignoring all of that, were I the Texans I would give him a tryout.
'I'll boycott!!' you say? I would argue that most of the fans who would abandon the team over that have left already and that's a small sub-set of fans anyway.
MOST fans just want their team to win. To feel like they're a part of something that's successful on Sundays. And that's what fandom is really all about. Winning makes people feel good. They like it. Losing makes them feel like, well.....losers.
It's ridiculous and silly and it's all about being a fan.
For 49ers, and Texans, fans of late that's been a real hard thing.
At least the 49ers seem to have a plan for turning it around. For the Houston Texans things have never seemed more dire. You have an owner who isn't serious about winning, might possibly be slightly addled and is known more for his poor word choice than anything else. You have a general manager who might be the sucker at any table he sits down at, and a head coach who is irascible, foul mouthed and seemingly not very good at coaching the game of tackle football unless a gift from the God's is playing at QB.
But even WITH Watson the Texans record was 3 & 4 1/2. With three of those losses squarely falling on the shoulders of the Chin. Whether as a result of bad game-planning or overly conservative play-calling it's apparent that BoB is in well over his head, and the team is destined to be 9-7, 8-8 or (more likely) worse with him in charge.
Here's the problem. From top to bottom this is not a franchise that is built to win. It starts at the top, incompetent management who can evaluate talent in the first round, but which is splotchy in its track record in the subsequent rounds. The result of this is a roster with more holes than Mayor Turner's tax increase defense and no plan to address it. Do YOU have any faith the Texans brain trust can draft its way out of this mess?
There are stars on the Texans, and a bunch of guys. The problem is most of the 'guys' are just that. Not players, not performers, but guys, roster spot fillers who would be camp bodies for good NFL teams, but who start for the Texans. I'm not going to call anyone out, you (and they) know who they are.
After losing Sunday to the hapless Colts, one struggles to find a future game on the roster where the Texans could reasonably be favorites.
Well, except for my 49ers of course. But 4-12 is now more of a possibility than is 9-7 and don't even think about 10-6. Such a thing for O'Brien is unpossible.
Maybe he can tell us again about his AFC Championships. THAT should do it.
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