DeMeco Ryans and Nick Caserio talk all the time.
However, it isn’t simply the new coach and third-year general manager who will be running the entire draft for the Houston Texans starting April 27. The three-day event represents a culmination of all of the data and insight the personnel and scouting departments were able to retrieve and mine about the 2023 draft class.
Caserio joined “Payne & Pendergast” on Sports Radio 610 [KILT-AM] on April 20 to talk about the collaboration that goes into producing a draft class.
“What we’ve done essentially over the course of the spring is we’ve accumulated a lot of information during the fall and in the all-star game process and relied on our scouts for us to to get through the amount of heavy lifting,” Caserio said. “So, they’ve kind of compiled everything. They have their evaluation. We rely on everybody’s evaluation, their information. Then we involve the coaching staff, get their evaluation of the player, how they see the player.”
Although Caserio proverbially turns in the draft card to the league, the decision is not his alone to make; there is a degree of democracy involved.
Said Caserio: “So, what we have to do is take a lot of information, distill it down, and then really the people are involved in the decision-making have, I would say, pretty constant dialogue and discussion. Because in the end it’s a collective decision. It’s not one individual decision. One person is not making a decision. We want to make sure that we’re comfortable with whatever decision we make for the entire organization, and everybody is going to have their perspective.”
When disagreements occur on a player, the key is to present the argument as such where constructive dialogue can help arrive at a beneficial compromise.
“We’ll talk, we’ll regroup, we’ll get everybody’s input,” Caserio said. “How do they factor into the kicking game? What is their role on defense? What’s their role on offense? How do you see the player? I’d say maybe this group sees a player this way. We see him maybe a little bit differently. But in the end we want to arrive at the end point that we all feel comfortable with. And whenever we make the decision, we’re all on-board and we’re all supportive of what we’re trying to do because we want the player to succeed, because if the player succeeds, the team is going to succeed. And the team is going to succeed — if the team succeeds, then that’s better for everybody involved.”
The Texans have 12 picks in the draft and have the most capital of any team.
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