The Houston Texans

[Huckleberry]

Are they the worst NFL team I've ever seen? It's possible.

I don't remember the 1988 or 1989 Cowboys being quite this awful. And I watched every one of their games, albeit at 11 and 12 years old.

Who are the other contenders from the last 20 years?

[kingfc22]

I can't wait for January 1. Houston @San Francisco

[RPI-Fan]

0-12 Chargers from 2001 (?)

[Rizon]

I'm just really surprised Carr is still alive.

I'm also thinking about trying out for OL. I'm 6'1, 145, I think I have a shot to at least start on that team.

[cthomer5000]

They suck balls. They allowed like 300+ yards tonight rushing... yikes!

[TroyF]

Well, lets see.

The Texans have the worst offense in the NFL, scoring 11 points per game and generating 212 yards of total offense a game.

They have the 26th worst defense in the league.

And that was heading into tonight. . .

But lets look at the positives. Two of their next four games are against the Colts. That'll help fix their problems for sure.

[cartman]

I think their decline the past couple of season can be attributed to my friend not being a cheerleader for them anymore.

[Desnudo]

The pre-Parcells/Bledsoe/Curtis Martin, post-Raymond Berry, Patriots were really awful. They were also a PR nightmare. A selection of seasons:

1990 - 1-15
1992 - 2-14

[stevew]

Where did it all go wrong? Have they made a bunch of pisspoor personell moves? Bad draft picks, etc? Seems like every one of their first rounders is a decent player, at least the ones i remember. I know they have no line, etc. But shouldn't they have a bunch of cap room to work with by this point?

[lytic]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

The pre-Parcells/Bledsoe/Curtis Martin, post-Raymond Berry, Patriots were really awful. They were also a PR nightmare. A selection of seasons:

1990 - 1-15
1992 - 2-14

I was thinking the same. I actually went to a game and I remember the owner coming out at halftime and everyone was booing him. That was the loudest the stadium got all day.

[Solecismic]

Simple. They had all that cap room they were required to spend, and they built their team around the players other teams made available. Good players, true, but not players you build around. Otherwise, why would other teams have made them available?

On paper, what they did made a lot of sense. Their defense was competitive and they drafted to build the offense. But they've never solved the problem with the offensive line, and now the defense has aged or otherwise been exposed, and there's nothing left to prop it up.

Give them two or three more years, and they'll start to catch up. This was inevitable.

[bulletsponge]

thier O-Line sucks. in FoF terms they are 20/40, 35/37 types. needless to say if your o-line sucks you cant pass or run.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

The pre-Parcells/Bledsoe/Curtis Martin, post-Raymond Berry, Patriots were really awful. They were also a PR nightmare. A selection of seasons:

1990 - 1-15
1992 - 2-14

Ah the good old days. Marc Wilson rulez!

[Radii]

The panthers 1-15 season? Man I remember that well, they beat the Vikings in week 1(a very good vikings team) and I was all hyped up for Carolina to be better than predicted... then they lost 15 in a row.

[Radii]

dola, 31st in total offense, 31st in total defense. Under 1400 yards rushing as a team. No WR over 600 yards in receiving.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/car2001.htm

[Butter]

David Klingler-era Bengals. I was at a game they played vs. the Patriots during Bledsoe's rookie year, and the Bengals won. But those were 2 of the worst teams in NFL history duking it out there.

[Darkiller]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

I can't wait for January 1. Houston @San Francisco

lol.
Which team will avoid going winless?
I am actually glad we play the Texans this year. Then maybe we have a shot at going 1-15

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Darkiller

lol.
Which team will avoid going winless?
I am actually glad we play the Texans this year. Then maybe we have a shot at going 1-15

hate to break it to you but the 49ers already have a win.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

hate to break it to you but the 49ers already have a win.

SPOILER!

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Radii

The panthers 1-15 season? Man I remember that well, they beat the Vikings in week 1(a very good vikings team) and I was all hyped up for Carolina to be better than predicted... then they lost 15 in a row.

While that was a poor season, I really don't think the team itself was all that bad. I think they just had the completely wrong coach for the job. They bounced back pretty quickly.

[bhlloy]

I picked the Seahawks at 17.5 (or whatever ridiculous line they were) but really wanted to change it as I didn't think that any NFL team in this era could be that consistently bad. I guess they can.

Everybody on that team has gone backwards. Carr is scared shitless (for obvious reasons). I think his only chance could be to start somewhere new, too many bad memories of the Reliant Stadium turf. Andre Johnson has gone to brink of elite to doesn't give a damn. The two first round picks last year have been nearly anonymous. Hey, maybe letting your most accomplished player and team leader walk when you can easily fit him under the cap isn't such a good idea

2-14 looks to be best case scenario at this point, although this is the new NFL, and I'm still holding out hope that no team can be that bad. I do have a soft spot for Houston football teams.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

I picked the Seahawks at 17.5 (or whatever ridiculous line they were) but really wanted to change it as I didn't think that any NFL team in this era could be that consistently bad. I guess they can.

Everybody on that team has gone backwards. Carr is scared shitless (for obvious reasons). I think his only chance could be to start somewhere new, too many bad memories of the Reliant Stadium turf. Andre Johnson has gone to brink of elite to doesn't give a damn. The two first round picks last year have been nearly anonymous. Hey, maybe letting your most accomplished player and team leader walk when you can easily fit him under the cap isn't such a good idea

2-14 looks to be best case scenario at this point, although this is the new NFL, and I'm still holding out hope that no team can be that bad. I do have a soft spot for Houston football teams.

try seahawks -9.5.

[G-Man]

I was 10 years old and living in Virginia Beach, Va.
My Dad being from New York was a Giants fan since the 1930's. So we watched any Giant's game that were televised. That year I got to watch the Giant's get hammered 55-14 and 72-41, and those are the ones that I can recall. They ended up 1-12-1!!!

They had no offensive line and absolutely no defense. My one fond memory of that year was in a game against the Rams, Henry Carr a DB picked off a Roman Gabriel pass and returned it 101 yards for a touchdown, tying the score at 14. then the Rams got serieous and blew out my G-Men 55-14.
They allowed 501 points in 14 games!

To show you how bad they were, the following year a book came out that listed each coaches favorite game from the year before (1966). It was an interesting book. The Giant's coach Allie Sherman's favorite game or what he considered his team's best was a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals! The only coach that picked a loss as his teams best game of the year!!

However I didn't give up on my G-Men. I rooted for them then and I still do almost 40 years later. It was so sweet when 20 years later they won the Superbowl by crushing the Denver Bronocs!! I am no fairweather, front running fan.

IMO true fans are the long suffering ones that do not give up on their teams (see Mariners) no matter how awful they are and for no matter how long!!

[Hammer755]

Originally Posted by stevew

Where did it all go wrong? Have they made a bunch of pisspoor personell moves? Bad draft picks, etc? Seems like every one of their first rounders is a decent player, at least the ones i remember. I know they have no line, etc. But shouldn't they have a bunch of cap room to work with by this point?

It's been a combination of pretty much everything you mentioned. Personnel moves have been either non-existant or bad. They've signed a couple of journeymen OL like Victor Riley and drafted similar calibre players like Seth Wand & Chester Pitts to try to patch what is consistently the worst O-Line in the NFL. The team's biggest off-season acquistion was ILB Morlon Greenwood, even though they already had 2 starters on the roster and ended up releasing Jamie Sharper. Robaire Smith was a decent pickup, but the D-Line has been terrible because Gary Walker & Seth Payne have both been injured a lot.

The draft has been even worse than free agency. They hit with Andre Johnson & Dunta Robinson, who were early first-round picks, and the jury is still out on Carr. Domanick Davis was a great value pick in the 4th round, but they've continued drafting running backs like Verand Morency in the 3rd. The took Tony Hollings with #2 pick in the supplemental draft, and surprisingly he's been hurt most of the time. They traded several picks to draft Jason Babin a couple of years ago and dealt a couple of early-rounders to get Philip Buchanon this year and both were benched a couple of weeks ago. They took Dave Ragone in the third round a few years back and he's never risen beyond #3 on the depth chart. They took TE Benny Joppru in the second round IIRC in 2003, and he's ended up on the IR before the season started 3 straight years!

Basically Charlie Casserly hasn't done anything except for hit on a couple of picks that he should have hit on. I remember hearing on the radio several times when the Steelers came to town a few weeks back that the Steelers had something like twice as many players on their team from the 2002 draft than the Texans did, and it was Houston's very first draft where they picked high and got extra sandwich picks between rounds.