Rumor Has it That Nick Caserio, Having Completed His Mission to Destroy the Texans from Within, is Returning to NE

It's classic spycraft, really. The sort of dirty tricks powerful interests have been using to topple their opponents since humans were living in City States behind castle walls. 

Some time during the Spanish Civil War, someone coined the term quinta columna, "Fifth Column," and the name has been used ever since. Defined as “domestic actors who work to undermine the national interest, in cooperation with external rivals of the state," it simply refers to what we more commonly call Double Agents. Those who appear to be working for one side, while actually working for another.  Spies you send in to infiltrate an adversary, gain positions of power, and bring them down by enacting policies that are terrible for them, but benefit you. 

It's done by governments, corporations, law enforcement agencies, organized crime. Think both Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed as perfect examples. And no one has mastered the craft the way Bill Belichick has. He's pulled it so many times now, it's incredible beyond belief that NFL franchises keep falling for the ruse. 

How many times does he have to bring someone up through his organization, put them in a position of authority, watch them get hired away, only to utterly destroy their new franchise, before the league catches on? Then the best part is when their mission is accomplished, he hires them back. Usually while still on the payroll of the very teams that fell into the trap to begin with. By now he must have some clever code name for it. Operation: Undermine or The Mangini Plan or something. 

And now, according to at least one report, the operation has been a success yet again:

Source - Recently, a theory has emerged regarding the future of G.M. Nick Caserio in Houston. As the theory goes, he might not have one.

John McClain recently wrote an item for Audacy.com regarding the situation. In it, McClain points out that he heard at the league meetings a rumor that Caserio will be leaving the Texans after the draft, and that he’ll be returning to the Patriots.

McClain doesn’t buy it. But he notes that former NFL executive Michael Lombardi has recently said there will be “organizational changes” in Houston after the draft.

That’s not a surprise, given that executive V.P. of football operations Jack Easterby was fired during the 2022 season and has not yet been replaced. It’s the Easterby departure that could be a factor for Caserio, since it was Easterby who persuaded owner Cal McNair to go off the board (as it was fashioned by the search firm) and hire Caserio, after the team had made a failed effort to hire him away from the Patriots.

With due respect to John McClain who doubts this, we've been through this before. There have been plenty of Spies Who Came in From the Cold in Foxboro over the years. Josh McDaniels being the most successful at it, ruining the Broncos before returning to win three Super Bowls. And now he's at it again in Las Vegas. Matt Patricia and Joe Judge got their jobs done, though their returns haven't exactly been triumphs. Bill O'Brien hardly wrecked the Texans (four trips to the playoffs in six-plus seasons), but he's back. In the meanwhile, Nick Caserio has been finishing the work O'Brien started, going 7-26-1 over two seasons in charge. 

Personally, I'm more of a Matt Groh guy, based on two very good drafts since he took over as Director of Player Personnel. But if Caserio wants to come back, put his shoulder to the wheel and find us another Kyle Dugger or Michael Onwenu like he did in his final draft here, I'm on board. Many hands make light work and all that. Plus his return would have added bonus of completing the humiliation of Easterby, the former Patriots team chaplain who somehow took over an NFL franchise:

Now, we sit back and watch as Caserio gives the Texans one final draft like the N'Keal Harry-Joejuan Williams-Chase Winovich debacle he produced in 2019, then makes his triumphant return to Foxboro. Then we patiently wait for the next Belichick assistant to get recruited by the next team hellbent on their own destruction. Operation: Undermine hasn't failed us yet.