Texans promote tight ends coach Tim Kelly to offensive coordinator.
Bill O’Brien reshaped his coaching staff with a handful of outside hires and promotions announced Tuesday that included fairly significant changes to the Texans’ offense.
For the first time since three seasons ago when O’Brien parted ways with George Godsey, the Texans have hired an offensive coordinator. Tim Kelly was promoted from tight ends coach to offensive coordinator, a move that likely signals O’Brien continuing to operate as the primary play-caller.
Kelly is expected to have heavy input into the direction of the offense, including building game plans and helping O’Brien with strategy during games. As Kelly grows into the role, he's expected to be given greater responsibility in all phases of the offense.
"I think that’s always been a collaborative effort for us," O'Brien said on his radio show on KILT when asked who will call the plays. "Through the years, we’ve had different guys call the plays. I’ve called plays, obviously we had George Godsey call plays. There’s no doubt in my mind that Tim Kelly is ready to call plays and that’s something that will always be, like I said, a collaborative effort.
"On the outside, people may say, ‘what does that mean?’ Well, there’s a lot that goes into a play call. Obviously, you don’t have a lot of time to make a play call but there’s a lot that goes into it. You need input from everybody quickly. So, whether it’s me calling the plays or Timmy calling the plays, it will always be what’s best for the team."
A former defensive lineman at Eastern Illinois, Kelly has risen in the coaching ranks since being a graduate assistant for O’Brien at Penn State. A former offensive quality control coach and assistant offensive line coach, Kelly is regarded highly for his work ethic, people skills and attention to detail. He consistently drew praise from O’Brien for his work with tight ends Ryan Griffin, Jordan Thomas and Jordan Akins last season.
A new experience
The 32-year-old has never been an offensive coordinator before at any level but has been groomed by O’Brien with additional duties each year.
"We believe this is an excellent change, something that Tim Kelly has earned," O'Brien said. " Timmy is an excellent young coach. I think he’s got a real bright future."
The Texans hired an extremely experienced quarterbacks coach in Carl Smith to replace Sean Ryan, who recently took a lateral move to coach the Detroit Lions’ quarterbacks coach.
Smith, 70, coached Seattle Seahawks Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson for seven seasons before being shifted to associate head coach last season. Smith is the father of Texans assistant special teams coach Tracy Smith and is entering his 30th season in the NFL. Smith is a former Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator who has spent 25 years coaching quarterbacks.
“I’m very excited about him," O'Brien said. "Carl brings a lot of experience to the table."
Smith is expected to mesh well with Texans Pro Bowl quarterback Deshaun Watson, a dualthreat passer who last season became the first NFL player to pass for at least 4,000 yards and 25 touchdowns and rush for at least 500 yards and five scores.
In other moves, former Texans quarterback T.J. Yates was hired as an offensive assistant.
Yates, who hasn’t coached before, was one of three former Texans players to join the staff, including former NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year linebacker Brian Cushing as assistant strength and conditioning coach and former inside linebacker Akeem Dent as a defensive assistant.
Former Texans assistant receivers coach Wes Welker is leaving the team to join the San Francisco 49ers. He’s expected to be named their receivers coach.
The Texans replaced Kelly as tight ends coach by promoting offensive assistant Will Lawing. Lawing was initially a defensive quality control coach. He is a former Penn State graduate assistant.
The Texans named former coaching intern John Aylward as an offensive assistant and Matt O’Donnell as a defensive assistant.
Mike Eubanks is the new head strength and conditioning coach, replacing Luke Richesson after Richesson re-signed to return to Denver with his family. Eubanks was Richesson’s assistant strength coach last year following a previous stint with the Denver Broncos. The Texans’ other assistant strength and conditioning coaches are Joe Distor and Jason George.
The Texans hired former New York Jets executive Clay Hampton as director of football operations, shifting Doug West to assistant to the head coach.
Chemistry matters
O'Brien continues to follow a promote from within philosophy but peppered some of his moves with some outside hires and giving key former players their first coaching opportunities.
"I think the No. 1 thing is the chemistry, the ability to be a good teammate, to understand your role," O'Brien said. "That’s why it’s always good in some respects to have guys that you’ve trained that you can promote from within. My philosophy there is why would you hire a young coach, train them in what you want to train them in and then let them go coach somewhere else and take all the things that he learned and go somewhere else.
"We want guys that have a passion for football, just like we look for in a player, somebody that loves football, that, outside of their family, football is their life. That’s what we look for and I think we found that with this staff.”