It’s about to get real for the new play-callers
It’s not just the Texans’ new starters who’ll be under the national spotlight Thursday night at Kansas City. They’ll also have new playcallers on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
Not many playoff teams trying to win a fifth division title in six years enter a season with three new coordinators, but coach Bill O’Brien has enough confidence in Tim Kelly (offensive), Anthony Weaver (defensive) and Tracy Smith (special teams) to increase their responsibilities.
All three coaches have been on the staff, so it’s not like they were hired to install and teach new systems.
Kelly and Weaver are making calls for the first time. O’Brien turned over play-calling to Kelly after last season. He promoted Weaver, who calls the defenses in place of Romeo Crennel, who was named associate head coach. Smith replaced his mentor, Brad Seely, who retired during the offseason.
Kelly, who’s been an assistant under O’Brien for nine years, including the last seven with the Texans, is fortunate that he can make his play-calling debut with Deshaun Watson at quarterback.
Weaver, who’s in his fifth year with the Texans, has a healthy defense, including end J.J. Watt, the three-time winner of the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award.
“I have a lot of confidence in Tim and Anthony,” O’Brien said. “They’re smart, and they’re good teachers and communicators. The players have a lot of respect for them.”
During the virtual offseason program and practices at training camp, O’Brien watched Kelly and Weaver closely. He challenged them on a daily basis on the field and in the meeting rooms. Now they begin their ultimate tests with the start of regular season.
“They’ve got to do a good job in the games,” O’Brien said. “Games are much harder than practices. Anything can come up in a game, and you’ve got to be ready to make the right call.”
The most interesting thing about Kelly’s promotion was that he didn’t hear about it until
February, when O’Brien told the media at the Indianapolis scouting combine.
“I was in my hotel room in Indy when he came out and made that public,” Kelly said. “My phone started to blow up. I thought something was wrong, or I was missing a meeting because I got a flood of text messages.”
After Kelly got over his initial excitement, the enormity of the responsibility hit him.
“How do I get ready to do this?” he told himself at the time. “How do I get ready to put Deshaun in the best position possible and to try to put this team in the best position to win as many games as possible?”
O’Brien still oversees the game plan. Kelly knows his head coach’s vision for the offense. Kelly can lean on O’Brien and offensive consultant Carl Smith, a longtime NFL offensive coordinator, during the week. But beginning on Thursday, it will be Kelly in Watson’s ear during the games.
Let’s be honest about Thursday — Weaver has the tougher assignment. He has to combat one of the league’s most explosive offenses ignited by quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and receiver
Tyreek Hill.
In two games against the Texans last season, Mahomes threw eight touchdown passes, including five to Kelce and Hill.
Weaver insists he doesn’t feel any extra pressure calling defenses for the first time against such a terrific offense.
“What’s pressure?” Weaver said. “Pressure just means somebody cares about you. That’s a good thing.”
Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who turned over play-calling duties last year to offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and won the Super Bowl, was asked about preparing for a playoff team with new play-callers.
“You’ve got to be ready for everything,” he said. “You study what potentially went on in their past, but that doesn’t always matter. You bank that there’s going to be adjustments, and they have to be made quickly.”
And they have to be made before a crowd of 17,000 at Arrowhead Stadium, the Sea of Red that houses more than 73,000 under normal circumstances. Because of the coronavirus, teams are limited in how many tickets they can sell, and most teams aren’t allowing fans at their stadiums, at least not early in the season.
The game — and the season — is being played in unprecedented circumstances, which gets Weaver even more pumped up.
“I’m thrilled,” he said. “We’re facing the defending champs (and) it’s the first game in a pandemic. What an opportunity this is for our defense and our team.”