2017 NFL Draft: Houston Texans Coach Bill O'Brien Building Smokescreens
Houston Texans head coach Bill O'Brien has already begun the traditional NFL draft smokescreen building as he narrows the team's focus one month out.
With just 30 days until the 2017 NFL Draft, it's expected that teams start to try to mislead each other. Houston Texans head coach Bill O'Brien is employing one of the earliest and most prolific obscuring strategy to throw teams off. To this point, O'Brien's former mentor, Bill Belichick, would be proud of the Texans' efforts.
One day after NFL.com's Kevin Patra reported that O'Brien was excited about the quarterbacks on the Texans roster (Tom Savage and Brandon Weeden), The Houston Chronicle states that "obviously" the Texans will add another quarterback. The Chronicle is simply stating what every other NFL observer already knows: The Texans need a quarterback.
But the coach-speak and misdirection that O'Brien is building into a smokescreen around the Texans' draft strategy would suggest otherwise. He leads the Texans' collective efforts in misguiding the opponents and the public, even getting team owner Bob McNair in on the process, suddenly declaring that Tom Savage "could be that guy" at quarterback less than a few months after he was riding the bench (per the Chronicle piece).
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The ability for a team to hide its hand in the NFL draft is a bit more difficult than in free agency. McNair noted this in talking about the Brock Osweiler mistake, citing the inability to bring Osweiler in early and get to know him as a mistake in the process (per ESPN). In the draft build up, the Texans can bring in 30 players for visits and interviews and those are frequently noted by observers of the team.
With that in mind, despite O'Brien's best efforts, it's clear that the Texans are not satisfied or set at quarterback and will continue down the path of finding the right signal caller. It all depends on how well one can see through the noise. A quick glance at the current visit tracker (courtesy of Walter Football) does not tip the team's hand with not a single visit scheduled with a quarterback prospect. None of the five pre-draft visits announced thus far are with a quarterback.
If the goal is to play things as close to the vest as possible, then the Texans are doing a stellar job. While there are some laudable prospects visiting with the team, the big prize at quarterback is still being kept under wraps. While the Tony Romo situation still lingers over the team, the Texans are quietly working on solving the quarterback conundrum.
Or, maybe, just maybe, O'Brien was serious when he said that he was "real excited" about Tom Savage.
