It’s clear the continued presence of Ryan Mallett on the Texans roster is a subject that coach Bill O’Brien and General Manager Rick Smith disagree on.
It’s also not going away.
According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, the Texans are still contemplating their options on how to handle Mallett. A fine is expected, and might be the extent of it, as long as the team doesn’t make a bigger organizational change.
“We’re dealing with Ryan Mallett internally, Rick Smith and I,” O’Brien said. “We’re talking about it. We’re talking about our options.”
While offering his best Jake Blues excuse by blaming the notoriously dense Saturday Houston traffic for missing the team plane, Mallett said he knew he had “to be better.”
But this is also the same guy who just happened to oversleep the day after Brian Hoyer was named the team’s starter for the opener.
When asked why he was repeatedly late, Mallett replied: “It only happened twice.”
If O’Brien had his way, twice might be enough. But as long as the Texans only have two quarterbacks on their 53-man roster and Mallett is one of them, the impression that there’s a rift between the coach and the front office will remain.