MAKING HIS STAND
After shaking up his staff, O’Brien betting on himself to fix the Texans before he becomes the next casualty
Bill O’Brien has all the power he needs right now. And that he deserves.
That’s not a knock on a thirdyear coach who’s 27-21 with back-to-back division titles and a playoff victory since he began trying to push Bob McNair’s Texans to the next level. That’s just the reality of where this franchise is as it enters another offseason watching better teams play in the biggest games.
For the third consecutive season under O’Brien, the Texans went 9-7 while lockedin general manager Rick Smith didn’t go anywhere. The previous two seasons closed with constant rumors about Smith’s future and imminent dismissal. Nothing happened. As the 2016 campaign faded away, O’Brien suddenly became one of the most-discussed names in the NFL. Again, nothing really happened. And the only organizational change revolved around O’Brien, who parted ways with longtime friend and offensive coordinator George Godsey, promoted team MVP Romeo Crennel to assistant head coach, named Mike Vrabel defensive coordinator and turned Sean Ryan into the Texans’ new quarterbacks coach.
Make-or-break season
O’Brien also will call his own plays again — returning to the roots that first brought him to Houston — which means there were five significant sideline changes in the same week that the coach stood behind a podium and said over and over that he wasn’t sure if any changes would be made.
“I don’t really have a lot of answers,” O’Brien said Monday, just hours before Godsey departed. “We’ll evaluate the whole team. We evaluate everything. That’s what every team does in the offseason, and that hasn’t even begun yet.”
It obviously already had. And the fact that Smith again remained untouched at the top while O’Brien moved around his staff following the best season of his career tells you all you need to know about where things stand on Kirby Drive.
This is the first make-orbreak season that O’Brien has faced. He’s three years into a five-year contract — as he kept reminding us in recent weeks when job rumors peaked — and only has one season left before he becomes a fading lame duck. He’s already doubling down and betting on himself. And you know what: Why not?
The Texans still have never won anything that matters. O’Brien is the only coach in franchise history with three consecutive winning seasons. If the next step we’ve all been waiting for is going to come under his watch, he might as well build the ladder himself.
“I will say that I’m very proud of this team. This team fought hard. … A bunch of good guys in that locker room,” O’Brien said in his season-ending news conference. “Only one team in the NFL ends the season happy. So when you lose in the playoffs, it’s a terrible feeling. It’s a terrible feeling. It’s an empty feeling.”
Splitting the blame
McNair badly wants to win and is willing to pay top dollar for it, but he always has fallen a few critical pieces — and one franchise-defining position — short. I say this every time and it remains true: Smith is a better GM than he gets credit for. He also has remained entrenched since June 2006, despite an unbelievably average 88-88 mark and three home wild-card wins, and he has done a remarkable job of securing his standing within the somewhat cozy confines of NRG Stadium.
O’Brien is clearly the most exposed and has the most to lose.
Smith received a four-year extension last July. The Texans’ coach, play-caller and public face likely will have to push the franchise higher than it has been to earn his next deal.
The setup is a little unfair and the fiery, proud O’Brien — who just played New England close for three quarters, turned 2-5 into 9-7 a season ago and has won with about 82 QBs since 2014 — might privately hate it. But it’s no different than the system that surrounds every second-tier-and-below team in pro football. And it’s not like O’Brien already has proven he’s the next Bill Belichick or is on the verge of creating Houston’s personal version of Green Bay or Pittsburgh.
Everyone in America knows the Texans still need a quarterback. Want to make your head spin Sunday morning? Try to figure out who’s more to blame for that problem the last three years: O’Brien or Smith.
I’m splitting it down the middle, knowing that many of O’Brien’s recent QBs were handpicked, while understanding that the Texans put themselves in this hole before their current coach walked through the door and have only drafted three quarterbacks in Smith’s 11-year tenure.
Shake-ups in the South
Colts owner Jim Irsay finally manned up and fired GM Ryan Grigson on Saturday. Chuck Pagano gets to stick around as coach, trying to fix the mess Indianapolis has built around Andrew Luck.
Tennessee went through major top-level changes in 2015 and is the smart favorite to take the AFC South next season. Jacksonville fired Gus Bradley as its coach at NRG in Week 15 and recently put Super Bowl-winner Tom Coughlin in charge of pretty much everything.
If O’Brien can create or find a lasting Texans QB, revive his DOA offense and take this team from annual 9-7 land to the top level of the AFC, then he has every right to demand a louder voice at McNair’s table.
Right now, a third-year leader is just moving his own pieces around and marshaling his troops. Which is exactly what coaches filled with self conviction do when they know they’re on the precipice of a divide.
O’Brien will either cross over to the other side or we could soon have a war — and a fallout — on Kirby Drive.