Professor Charley Casserly: Destroying Your Draft 101

I can't speak for Redskins fans but as a Texans fan, I find it very difficult to listen to former Houston GM Charley Casserly act as a draft analyst. It strikes me a bit like getting parenting lessons from Britney Spears.

His latest gig is being a professor at George Mason University, teaching students on how to get a job and keep it. The advice is pretty sound--finding a job, paying your dues, impressing bosses, finding mentors, volunteering to do harder jobs. Of course, he missed one of his steps that the Houston media would probably point out right away--put blame on other people in case things don't work out.

For young job seekers, I would suggest it is also important to look older and more responsible than you are when you are looking for your first job. And just looking at Casserly, never ever get gray in your helmet hair as you get older and make sure Wikipedia doesn't know your age. Having non-stop BS skills is a plus, and always sound confident in what you are saying, even when you don't know what the hades you are talking about. "See, that's the way we do it in the NFL see....."

All GM's make mistakes on players. But you would hope that those GM's would learn from some of those mistakes. One of the biggest problems I had about Casserly is that he completely discounted the value of middle round picks in building a team in the modern salary cap era. The Texans are still paying for that mistake in the lack of depth on their team.

In 2005, he sent the Texans second and third round picks to Oakland in exchange for CB Phillip Buchanon. Casserly believed the deal was a no-brainer:

"Can you acquire a player as good as Phillip Buchanon in the second round of the draft? The answer is no. Now you're giving up a third-round pick. Your percentage of players drafted in the third round becoming starters is 30 percent or less. You're weighing that when you make this decision. When we finish the draft, we know we got a starter in the second round ... we know we got the best player drafted in the second round this year."

Ultimately, Buchanon was terrible as a Texan, and the team finished 2-14. Texans owner Bob McNair gave a rare public beatdown critical interview for the Houston Chronicle blaming the staff for not doing their homework on Buchanon. He lost trust in Casserly, and soon after hired Dan Reeves as a consultant.

The problem with devaluing third round picks as throw aways is that those teams who choose well in the middle and lower rounds tend to have success.

So does Casserly learn from the Buchanon experience? No, he trots out the same tired statistics last year for the contention that few lower round picks have meaning. Just because the 10 year success rate of third round picks is 30% or less, doesn't mean that your particular team is going to miss on those picks. It may be harder for a lower round pick to find a place on a team with established starters, but for a team like the Texans with many needs, your third round pick can be a key player.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-25-2008 @ 7:20PM

Tom said...

Dear MS Stradley,

The job place skills you mentioned in jest are exactly the ones required to survive some work places, which can possibly explain the success of such shows as "Survivor" and "Big Brother".

I have to heartily agree with your assessment on third and fourth round draft selection. I don't exactly remember when Charles Spencer was drafted, maybe it was the third round, but he started right away, and Eric Winston who has solidified right tackle was drafted later, as well as Owen Daniels, and then there's Fred Bennet and Darius Walker. I think the thing that Rick Smith and the Texans do is pick up guys that have fallen through the cracks, or have been looked over, and draft the best player available in later rounds even if they don't fit an immediate need. To me that's just smart drafting, and I think eventually the Texans will be a good team, possibly even great.

My tool bar tells me I can have that translated into English. I guess Texan is it's own language.

Buck said...

I realize national sports writers are one step above garden slugs on the IQ scale, but it's amazing how much of a pass Casserly gets. The worst is how much he gets credit for signing Mario. Even though this was after his tenure had brought us 2-14, a crap-filled roster, Capers getting canned, and Reeves being brought in to infuse some sanity. Why anyone would think he had anything to do with that signing (other than paperwork) is really beyond me.

Fast forward to the present...Smithiak has shined in the middle rounds. Erego,I'm looking forward to this weekend. Should be entertaining, if nothing else.

4-26-2008 @ 1:29AM

George B Vieto said...

The best players in the draft are usually the middle round players. The Texans should be playoff contenders this year.

4-29-2008 @ 5:56PM

kozanack said...

"Having non-stop BS skills is a plus, and always sound confident in what you are saying, even when you don't know what the hades you are talking about. "See, that's the way we do it in the NFL see.....""
It always amazes me that people do so little to verify the accuracy and qualifications of those they hire. Charlie Casserly should never have been hired as GM by the Texans. I guess nobody bothered to check the results of his 10 years with the Redskins.

4-27-2008 @ 9:39AM

Chris F. said...

Charley is a better politician than a General Manager for sure. There are way too many teams in pro sports that have people running things when they have no business running things.

If he began his career in 1969, then I guess we can assume his age is around 60?