The Texans' 'Idiotic' Roster: Is The Media Right?

A rather "Patriotic'' move - labeled an "idiotic'' move by 45-year NFL writer McClain - probably accomplishes far less than Caserio thinks.

We can joke around about the Houston Texans laboring to mimic New England on the path to becoming "Patriots South,'' while all the time realizing that if new GM Nick Caserio, with his Belichickian roots, brings to Texans even a fraction of the devious Patriots' success, few Houstonians will mind.

We can also joke about the relative anonymity of the present 2021 Texans roster and how "You can't tell the players without a program'' - or, for this week at OTAs, how you can't tell the players even with a program, because as veteran writer John McClain noted, the roster handed out to media members in attendance at the workouts included no identifying jersey numbers.

But actually, that rather "Patriotic'' move - labeled an "idiotic'' move by 45-year NFL writer McClain - probably accomplishes far less than Caserio thinks.

First, to McClain ...

“For the first time in 45 years of covering the NFL, I’m seeing something new,” McClain said on Twitter. “Media allowed to attend our first Texans OTA, and we’re given rosters with no numbers for players. Names with no numbers next to them with almost 50 new players. Idiotic!”

New coach David Culley tried to explain ...

“This is a different football team than it was last year and basically what it is is just that we’ve created competition,” said Culley, when asked about the incognito nature of jersey ID's. “We’ve created competition at all positions and that’s what we want to see and that’s what we want to get done out there.”

Yeah, that .... and secrecy.

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Does the approach fool the players into thinking that, say, Laremy Tunsil is something other than the team's best O-lineman? Here's hoping that as the media struggled to decipher who's who, the coaches and scouts who, following the workout, retreated into their offices to watch film didn't have the same issues - and that not even a minute was wasted trying to also figure out who's who.

READ MORE: Houston Texans' Laremy Tunsil: How High Does He Rank?

Some teams, in order to send a message to players that "We're all starting at zero,'' will remove the decals from the helmets. Or the rookies will have to wait a while to "earn'' their decals. But no jersey numbers on the handed-out roster? 

READ MORE: Nico Collins Showing Texans Offense He's 'More Than a Rookie'

It's a gimmick that, with long-term application, can backfire. (As the Texans later realized, eventually giving in to letting the media attach names to numbers on paper.)

Texans fans certainly will care far less about the issue if it somehow leads to championships. (Prediction: It won't.) But in the meantime, if the purpose is in any way to be secretive, to hide the "who's who'' from the media, the people impacted in the greatest way are ...

The fans.

It's you who wants to be able to put a face with a name with a number, you who wants who practiced well and who didn't, you who wants to know as much as possible about the identities of the men who will surely labor furiously to fix all the things that are broken with the Houston Texans.

This isn't really about truths being hidden from the folks covering the Texans, because the media is simple a conduit of information from the team to you. 

This is about truths being hidden from you.