The Texans Finally Did the Right Thing

The Texans finally did it. All it took was a plethora of terrible trades, mostly bad draft decisions, star players turning on him and an 0-4 start, but they finally fired Bill O’Brien. In fact they relived him of all duties he held, effective immediately. When they fired him, they made sure it was well known that it was then and there. No waiting until the end of the year, no third or fourth chance, nothing. He, as of last night, is unemployed.

Now, as far as O’Brien’s on field coaching, he’s not good, but he’s not terrible. The Texans did make the playoffs pretty regularly, and they even won a game in the playoffs once in awhile. Yes, the division is not good, the Colts had to deal with Andrew Luck suddenly retiring and Jacksonville’s epic collapse after an AFC title appearance. O’Brien also had a hand in drafting Deshaun Watson. Yes, he mortgaged the future by trading many, many picks, but still, they got Watson. As far as the on field play, it wasn’t too bad. Watson masked a lot of the problems, but still, they had an okay enough offense to win nine games a season. But everything kind of came to a head this off-season. They traded Deandre Hopkins for peanuts. Apparently Hopkins and O’Brien didn’t get along, and since he had GM responsibilities, O’Brien chose himself and his priority over what was best for his team. He offloaded his young star QB’s best weapon because they didn’t like one another. There’s been so many of these stories in the past, star player doesn’t like coach, but it usually solves itself, or the coach goes. It’s almost never coach over player. But most coaches don’t have GM authority, or if they do, it doesn’t work. O’Brien was clearly in the latter. Beside the Hopkins trade, O’Brien had many mishaps. He did get Watson, but mortgaged the future of the team. He never drafted or developed O line to help the franchise QB. They took on too many “project” players. They never really added to the defense. They let Jadaveon Clowney leave in free agency.

This is all on O’Brien. He can be blamed for this. Back to the Hopkins trade. As I said, they got peanuts. They got some late round picks and David Johnson. No disrespect to Johnson, but he was a one season wonder, and then his leg exploded the following season. He’s not the guy he was that one year, and he will never be again. Hopkins on the other hand is young and awesome. He is currently crushing it in Arizona. The Cardinals may not be the best team, but they’re better than the Texans currently. But with all the turnover, the fights and the mishandling in the front office, it just felt like a matter of when, not if, O’Brien would be fired.

Then the Texans started the year the way they’ve started it. They’ve looked anemic on offense. They can’t protect Watson, the receivers get zero separation and the run game is non existent. The defense, it’s below average. JJ Watt is overrated and always hurt. Whitney Mercilus is hurt. They haven’t replaced Clowney. Their secondary is shotty. And again, this can all be placed on O’Brien. He took on all these extra roles, and when you take on too much, it’s hard to do any of them adequately. He made bad decisions as a GM, and the on field play was starting to really suffer from his poor play calling. He also let his feelings get involved, and that cannot happen in the NFL.

O’Brien has struck me as a guy that has failed up. He was on a good staff in New England when he got the Penn State job. He was fine there, but they were never a true threat. He then got this Texans job, and soon enough he became the GM, as well as the head coach and was given full authority for the most part. He didn’t do that good enough, and now he’s out of all of those jobs. I don’t know where he goes from here. I mean, he had all this power, so what will he look for in a new job if he’s offered one? I don’t think an NFL team will hire him, at least not as a head coach. He could get a coordinator job, but not a head coaching job. He should not get a front office or GM job ever again. This was where he messed up the most. As far as college, will he go back? Will he take less money? Will he go to a lower tier school? I don’t know. I don’t think a big time program will hire him. He wasn’t hyper competitive at PSU. He didn’t win any titles wasn’t in contention. I don’t know how many big schools will have an opening either. This is tricky because of the pandemic, and how rough this last image of him is going to be. If I had to guess, I’d say he takes a coordinator job. I don’t think he’ll want to go back to college, but I don’t think an NFL team will give him the top job.

Hey, at least Texans fans don’t have to deal with O’Brien’s idiocy anymore. That’s their silver lining.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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