Next GM will have personnel control

O’Brien part of 4-man committee that starts interviews next week

Owner Bob McNair disclosed Wednesday the Texans’ plan to start interviews next week to find their new general manager and hope to have the position filled within two weeks.

McNair said the new general manager will have the same control over personnel that Rick Smith had and will answer only to McNair and vice chairman Cal McNair.

Once the new GM is in place, the McNairs will turn their attention to coach Bill O’Brien’s contract situation. O’Brien, who has one year left on his deal, is expected to sign a long-term extension.

The McNairs, president Jamey Rootes and O’Brien form the team’s search committee that will hire the third general manager in the Texans’ 17-year history.

“The GM is going to have full

authority over personnel, and he’ll report to Cal and me,” McNair said. “That’s our main message to potential GMs, and there’s no question about that.

“He’ll have the draft and free agency. He’ll handle all football operations and sports performance, which is weight room, training room, doctors and nutrition.”

McNair wouldn’t reveal candidates they’ve asked permission to interview. The interviews begin next week, and four candidates are known: Buffalo vice president of player personnel Brian Gaine, New England vice president of player personnel Nick Caserio, Texans vice president of football operations/ assistant general manager Jimmy Raye III and Green Bay director of player personnel Brian Gutekunst.

Gaine interviews Tuesday, a day before Raye.

“I’d like to get it done in a week or two — the sooner the better,” McNair said. “We know what we want. We’ll pick somebody Cal and I like, coach O’Brien likes, and Jamey likes. We pretty much agree on what we’re looking for. I think we’ll have a consensus as to how we’ll rate the prospects.

“We’re going to go through this on the GM, get that behind us, and then we’ll address it (O’Brien’s contract).”

The GM position is vacant because Smith has taken a year-long leave of absence to help take care of his wife, Tiffany, who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and their three children.

Smith said Monday he’ll retain his title of executive vice president and plans to return in 2019. There’s no guarantee he’ll be back.

“Rick needs to take care of his family,” McNair said. “Hopefully, they’ll get good results this year. Some people have raised the question if Rick comes back at the end of a year, (whether) he’s going to have undue influence on the GM. That’s not the case at all.

“Rick might not want to come back. We don’t know what Rick might do. That’s something we’ll discuss a year from now. The only concern is to take care of his family, and we’re not going beyond that.”

As they did when they interviewed coaching candidates in 2014 and hired O’Brien from Penn State, the Texans are using the search firm of Korn Ferry, headed by Jed Hughes.

“There are a number of people I think can do a very good job,” McNair said. “We’re fortunate in that regard and not limited to just one person. We’ll try to find the one that’s the best fit for us.

“When we get that person, we’ll move. If we’ve interviewed a number of people and we still don’t feel comfortable, we’ll keep interviewing until we find somebody that fits our culture and brings the capability and dedication to our organization.”

No housecleaning yet

McNair said the new GM can hire people he wants to join him but won’t be able to make wholesale changes this year. People in the personnel department who were hired by Smith are concerned about losing their jobs.

“He may have one or two key people he’s worked with and are valuable members of his team, and he might want to bring them in,” McNair said. “I think that’s reasonable. It’s also reasonable to ask that person to work with the people we have this year and see what he thinks.

“We’re not going to have somebody come in and clean house and start firing everybody. After he’s worked with them for a while, if he thinks they’re not capable of doing the kind of job we expect, he can replace them.”

Because O’Brien and Smith had irreconcilable differences that reached a boiling point, McNair wants his coach on the search committee. There’s a lot of speculation that the Texans should hire a general manager who knows O’Brien or has worked with him. He worked with Raye this season and has worked with Gaine with the Texans (2014-2016) and Caserio with the Patriots (2007-2011).

“Since coach O’Brien is on the interview committee with us, he can have his input and feel good about it,” McNair said. “There’s no question that coach O’Brien is on board with us.

“Bill is going to have a better-grounded opinion of somebody he’s worked with, as opposed to somebody he hasn’t worked with. He would know a lot more about them. There are a number he’s familiar with and would be happy to work with. It’s not a matter of finding only one person he can get along with.”

McNair said they don’t want a general manager who’s a yes man to the owners or O’Brien. He wants a general manager who’s confident, has strong opinions and isn’t afraid to offer a differing point of view. Kind of like O’Brien.

“You want somebody’s who’s confident of their viewpoint, can present it and defend it, and yet listen to other people if somebody’s got a better argument, a stronger argument, accept it and move on,” McNair said. “That’s what we ask of all of our people, really, is speaking your mind and tell us what you think.

“You don’t have to agree with me. If you disagree with me, I’m not going to get mad at you. I want to know why you disagree, what is the basis for it, and I’ll consider it and decide if that makes more sense than what I’m already considering. If you have a stronger argument, I can be convinced.”

Owner praises coach

After watching O’Brien for four years, McNair is confident about extending their relationship.

“I think he’s a good teacher,” McNair said. “To be a good teacher, if someone makes a mistake, you need to correct them right then, not the next day. If you do it on the spot, it’s more meaningful. That’s what he does in practice.

“Everyone can see he’s holding you accountable.”

McNair is aware of how the players spoke out and offered support for O’Brien.

“It matters, but that’s not going to dictate what we do,” McNair said. “Whether the players like him or not isn’t the point. They need to respect him, and they need to understand he’s there to make them better players.

“As long as they understand that, they like to be coached hard. Bill coaches them hard. I think you develop faster when you have a demanding coach who expects a lot from you.”

McNair wants his new general manager to be demanding, too. The McNairs haven’t changed their philosophy. The new general manager has to agree with their emphasis on bringing in high-character players and not players with patterns of bad behavior.

“We think that’s very important,” McNair said. “I think you need people you can trust playing next to you. You need to respect them. When you need to depend on them, you need somebody who’ll be there.”