After acquiring Stefon Diggs, Texans owner Cal McNair, GM Nick Caserio and coach DeMeco Ryans now have a title-contending team.
Bad habits are hard to break.
Does that work for good habits too?
The Texans are on such a roll of successive smart, winning decisions — the types of moves of which championships are made — that I’m going to run this column through a plagiarism checker to ensure I don’t repeat previous compliments.
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Who saw this coming?
Wednesday, the Texans finalized a trade with the Buffalo Bills for wide receiver Stefon Diggs, a four-time Pro Bowler, who finished seventh in the NFL with 107 catches to lead the Bill’s top-10 offense.
Diggs, who has six straight 1,000-yard seasons, would have been by far the best wide receiver among the available free agents. In short, the best pass catcher who changed teams this offseason joined the Texans.
In a year, Nick Caserio and DeMeco Ryans took a team that most believed had the worst personnel in the league and turned it into a contender.
It is an incredible rise that no one saw coming, a jump not even Ryans and Caserio could have foreseen.
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Then again, there’s Nostradamus.
While the great star suffers, the endeavors of the South shall be great
A young tiger will rise with bulls
The noise of the unwanted birds silenced,
In the crescent land gold seekers conquered
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Um, great star suffering? The Dallas Cowboys haven’t been to a Super Bowl in almost 30 years.
Endeavors of the South? The Texans play in the AFC South division.
A young tiger? DeMeco Ryans is a graduate of Jess Lanier High School in Bessemer, Ala., home of the Purple Tigers.
Bulls? Well, the Texans’ logo is a bull’s head.
Unwanted birds? Perhaps that’s a reference to the Baltimore Ravens, who beat the Texans in the playoffs last season?
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Crescent land? New Orleans, aka the Crescent City, will host next year’s Super Bowl.
Gold seekers? Maybe the San Francisco 49ers?
This is crazy, right?
Yes, it is.
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If you’re still reading this and about to bet money on it because there is a possibility Nostradamus called it 500 years ago … stop. Seek help.
I repeat, no one saw this coming.
At this point a year ago, the Texans were coming off a season in which they finished tied with the Bears with the fewest wins in the league. They needed a miracle touchdown on 4th-and-20 in the final minute of the last game just to get that third victory.
Their Super Bowl odds were the worst in the NFL, at 200-1.
On Wednesday, sportsbooks listed the Texans at 10-1 to win the next Super Bowl. The only teams with better odds are the Kansas City Chiefs (5-1) and San Francisco 49ers (6-1), the two teams that played in the game this year.
Teams’ futures odds rarely, if ever, improve as much as the Texans' have in the wake of the Diggs trade.
Payoffs on bets that the Texans will win next year’s Super Bowl were at 22-1 before the deal. For perspective, the Jets went from 25-1 to 14-1 when they acquired Aaron Rodgers last year.
A wide receiver cannot have that great of an impact on odds. This bump isn’t about Diggs, as much as it is an acknowledgement from oddsmakers that the Texans know what they’re doing.
Vegas believes.
In addition to Diggs, the Texans acquired running back Joe Mixon, defensive end Danielle Hunter, and defensive lineman Denico Autry. The addition of a 1,000-yard receiver, a 1,000-yard rusher, an edge rusher who posted 16½ sacks, and a lineman who had 11½ sacks is unprecedented.
With rare exceptions — the trade to draft Deshaun Watson, the free-agent signings of Johnathan Joseph and Danieal Manning — the Texans have built slowly, conservatively, hoping to grow into something big. This aggressive attack to team building is a change in philosophy.
Cal McNair made that clear by signing off on the trade up in last year’s draft to pick Will Anderson Jr. at No. 3 after the team had already taken C.J. Stroud at No. 2.
What we witnessed last year was the dawning of the Age of the Texans.
McNair isn’t counting pennies nor is he afraid to let his general manager work.
Give Caserio credit. These aren’t wild shots in the dark. Of course, not all of the moves will work, but he has improved a team that won 11 games last year.
This isn’t a “Super Bowl or bust” season, because the Texans should be good for years to come. They are where the Astros were when they traded for Justin Verlander.
The Texans are aiming high, as all teams should. They are going for it.
That’s the best habit a franchise can have.
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