Can O’Brien lead new-era Texans?
In 5th year, coach has QB to build something big
Game film is paused on a jumbo screen that stands opposite Bill O’Brien’s large office desk.
His room is filled with memories and mementos: Family photos — including a fading one of his footballplaying father — and a Texans game ball from his first NFL coaching win way back in 2014, when Ryan Fitzpatrick was his first quarterback and Jadeveon Clowney first got hurt.
A 48-year-old man — entering his fifth season as the Texans’ coach and finally possessing a young QB to build a franchise around — calmly leans back in his chair and discusses it all as the hours count down toward another Week 1.
New era. Old mistakes. Everything he’s learned.
The private, in-depth
meetings with the McNairs last offseason, which convinced O’Brien that NRG Stadium would remain as his football home. The inner belief that these Texans — more than ever made in his vision — could be building something big in 2018, but the hard understanding that a 412 season and 31-33 career record simply don’t cut it in pro football.
“I appreciate the confidence that (owner) Bob McNair has shown in us and me. I think my relationship with Bob has come a long way,” said O’Brien, who will return to his home state Sunday when the Texans open their season against the 2017 AFC champion New England Patriots. “Bob tells me all the time, ‘I just want the truth.’ So I just try to give Bob the truth.”
Is O’Brien the right coach to lead the Texans where they’ve never been before? We’re still asking that big question more than 4½ years after he was hired to change it all on Kirby Drive.
He’ll never have another chance like this to prove himself in Houston.
“I would love to be the coach here as long as they’ll have me here. It is an exciting time for us,” he said. “You think about the youth of the team mixed with the veteran leadership. … I always struggle with this question, because it’s all about what we do. How we coach, how we perform and winning. You’ve got to do it.”
On the same page
The new-era Texans — revamped, not rebuilt — are being pieced together by new general manager Brian Gaine, who replaced longtime GM Rick Smith. Alignment is now the key behindclosed-doors word on Kirby. But during the three previous years under O’Brien, there were constant rumors highlighting lingering frustrations and unbridgeable divides.
“No chance in hell,” said veteran cornerback Johnathan Joseph, when asked if he thought his coach would move on from the Texans. “There was a second there where I thought maybe. But then my football mind kicked in. No way in hell that you would leave a team like this behind, and ownership’s seen what we’ve done the past couple years. Football, sometimes when things don’t go the right way, you have a one-off season. That’s what I look at it like. This team had an off year.”
Did O’Brien ever reach a point where he believed he would part ways with the franchise?
“I think that’s more about maybe when you get home and you’re talking to your wife about things. But you do not, you do not — and that’s one thing — you never dwell on it. You don’t address it,” he said. “When you get into the profession you know that if you don’t win — especially when you’re a head coach, especially in pro football — if you don’t win, you’re probably not going to be there that long. That’s just the way that it is, and you accept that.”
The McNairs bought in to O’Brien’s long-term vision, extending his contract through 2022, and the way is clearly through Deshaun Watson. From 2014-16, the fiery O’Brien was at his best when his options were limited and his team was counted out. Put him in a corner and he would think (and fight) his way out. In 2018, the organization is betting hard on the growing relationship between a coach and his young QB, and the belief that O’Brien’s on- and off-field approach will continue to evolve.
The fifth-year coach says it’s impossible to quantify how much he’s learned.
“When you get philosophical about it, it’s about how do you deal with adversity. How do you improve? How are you always trying to help everything get better?” O’Brien said. “That’s what — and, again, you’ve known me for a while; I don’t really enjoy talking about myself — but we think about that.
“Football’s a tough game. It’s an interesting game, it’s a challenging game and football has a lot of adversity in it, whether it’s on the field or, obviously, off the field, and it’s how you deal with that adversity. … What are you learning from some of the errors that maybe you’ve made in the past and trying to get better?”
‘Hard to shut it off ’
The hat above his desk, which sports oversized OB initials, is a small inside joke.
The famous photo of Kansas City quarterback Len Dawson taking a cigarette break during the Chiefs’ defeat in Super Bowl I tells you a little more about the daily mindset of a sarcastic, selfdeprecating, blue-collar coach.
“I haven’t taken all that advice,” joked O’Brien, referring to the Texans’ increased attention to nutrition, weight training, conditioning and speed.
The signed painting of Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr., won at a Special Olympics auction, captures O’Brien’s personal spirit.
“I love that guy,” said the Texans’ coach, his voice lifting as he studies McCullers’ in-motion image. “He’s like a bulldog.”
The 2017 season was rough and unforgiving. A 29-7 blowout by Jacksonville and a benched Tom Savage at NRG Stadium for a beginning. Constant injuries, six consecutive defeats and losses in nine of the final 10 games for the franchise’s worst ending since Gary Kubiak was fired.
But Houston is more of a home than ever for O’Brien. His wife, Colleen, loves the city and the family’s neighborhood. His youngest son, Michael, just turned 13 and plays baseball year-round. His oldest, Jack, who was born with the infant neurological disorder lissencephaly, just had a “monumental birthday.”
“That was a big deal,” he said. “Because for him to go through what he goes through every day and to be 16 years old is a milestone.”
Family has long been at the core of his life. But as his fifth season draws near — a critical swing year that could determine multiple football futures, including his own — O’Brien acknowledged it’s difficult to let go of a dream job that demands so much.
“I definitely find it hard to shut it off sometimes,” he said. “I’ve improved on that a little bit. But when your mindset is to always do what’s best for your players and your coaching staff, when you go home it’s not always easy to just go, ‘OK.’
“Obviously I have a great wife, Colleen, she’s a sounding board and she listens — it’s amazing she’s still married to me. But I think it’s hard. Anybody that says they just shut it down and they’re great when they get home, well, great for them, because I think that’s hard to do. Because there’s a lot that comes across your desk every day that doesn’t have anything to do with football.”
Watson was inside this room hours earlier, breaking down video with O’Brien and trying to find a new way to see the field.
Outside, there are MVP predictions and a national Sports Illustrated cover. Inside, a coach who worked his way up the college ladder for more than a decade, then rose from a low-tier Patriots offensive assistant to the Texans’ new leader, just keeps connecting with a 22year-old who could end up as the new face of the NFL.
Old-school dedication and tunnel vision blend with personal evolution.
“(Watson is) here all the time,” O’Brien said. “He’s here early; he stays late. He’ll text me, or we’ll come up and watch tape together.”
The past is part of his official coaching history. He knows what being 31-33 overall looks like to this football-loving city and that he’s still fighting for double-digit wins in a single season. Bring up all the old QBs and decisions, and the man who doesn’t like to talk about himself doesn’t flinch.
“Every guy that’s suited up for us, I’m sure they would tell you maybe it’s not always a bed of roses for them with me,” O’Brien said. “I’ve tried to treat everybody fair to the best of my ability. But I know I’ve made mistakes, and I’ve learned and hopefully been a better coach for that.”
The roster must deepen. A team that was so unlucky a year ago must rediscover that elusive fortune in 2018. But the top names — DeAndre Hopkins, J.J. Watt, Whitney Mercilus, Tyrann Mathieu, Clowney, Watson — are healthy and united in the same building, and there is a chance that this is just the start for the new Texans.
‘In right direction’
“One of the biggest things is just being able to understand how to take care of the player. That’s where he’s really, really evolved,” said Mercilus, who’s entering his seventh season with the Texans and was limited to just five games last year due to a season-ending pectoral injury.
O’Brien briefly pauses the never-ending work and leans back in his chair. He mentions the old days and names: Earl Campbell, Elvin Bethea, Luv ya Blue. He knows what a true winner would mean to Houston.
Then O’Brien walks out of his office and returns to the same job that he started in January 2014 — the one he’s still trying to complete.
“That’s the main reason why we’re all here. That’s pro football,” he said. “Everybody’s vying for that one thing, and it’s so hard to get to that. If you’re on the same page, you have half a chance. I know we’re headed in the right direction.”