‘DIFFERENT DIRECTION’
McNair turns to club veteran Crennel as interim coach after 0-4 start.
After beginning the season with an 0-4 record for the first time since 2008, the Texans on Monday fired Bill O’Brien as head coach and general manager.
The Texans’ most recent loss, 31-23 to the Minnesota Vikings at NRG Stadium on Sunday, convinced chairman and chief executive officer Cal McNair
that the team was going in the wrong direction with O’Brien, who was fired four games into his seventh season.
“I don’t like to do that, because you grow to like people you work with, and I like Bill,” McNair said. “But I think you have to put aside personal feelings when you want to go in a different direction, and that’s what I did.”
McNair promoted associate head coach Romeo Crennel, 73, to interim coach to replace O’Brien for the last 12 games. Crennel, who is recognized as one of the most successful defensive coordinators in NFL history, has head coaching experience at Cleveland and
Kansas City.
Crennel, who earned five Super Bowl rings as an assistant coach with the New York Giants and New England Patriots, came to Houston with O’Brien in 2014 to run the team’s defense.
“That was an easy decision,” McNair said. “I’ve gotten to know Romeo, and he’s a great guy and a wonderful coach. The players really love Romeo. I believe they’ll rally around him.”
In his first six seasons, O’Brien guided the Texans to four AFC South titles and two playoff victories, but they couldn’t get beyond the divisional round of the postseason.
In 2019, the Texans finished 10-6, won the division, defeated Buffalo in a wild- card playoff game but lost in the divisional round at Kansas City, where they blew a 24-0 lead in a 51-31 loss.
“It’s a bottom-line business, and we weren’t able to get it to where we needed to get it,” O’Brien said in a Zoom conference call. “I understand we fell short in terms of taking this team further in the playoffs.
“I leave knowing that myself and this staff gave everything this organization deserved and more. We worked very, very hard to try to get this to a place where it could be a championship program. We just didn’t get it done.”
O’Brien thanked the McNair family, including the late Bob McNair, for giving him an opportunity to become an NFL head coach.
“They were always very supportive,” O’Brien said. “I have tremendous respect for their family and thank them for the opportunity they gave me.”
After he was fired, O’Brien got a chance to speak briefly to his players.
“I just thanked them, and I told them I love them,” he said. “These players are just awesome guys. They practiced hard. They tried to do everything we asked them to do. It was a pleasure coaching them, and I’m going to miss seeing them every day.”
Promoting Crennel is the only change McNair made Monday. Jack Easterby, the Texans’ executive vice president of football operations who worked closely with O’Brien, will oversee the football side of the organization. Offensive coordinator Tim Kelly and defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver will retain their current responsibilities.
O’Brien was fired because the Texans got off a disastrous start with losses to Kansas City, Balti-more, Pittsburgh and Minnesota.
McNair wasn’t happy with the 0-3 start but thought the Texans could earn their first victory against Minnesota, another team that was winless after three games. Another lackadaisical performance on offense and defense caused McNair to make the decision Monday rather than take a chance the Texans would lose to Jacksonville, a team that brings a three- game losing streak to NRG Stadium on Sunday.
“I did this nowbecause there’s a lot of the season left, and I wanted to take a chance that we can win some games,” McNair said. “We want to win. We’re going to focus on getting ready to play Jacksonville.”
O’Brien followed Dom Capers and Gary Kubiak as the only head coaches in the Texans’ 19-year history. He was put in charge of personnel decisions after McNair fired general manager Brian Gaine in June 2019.
After last season, McNair gave O’Brien the additional title of general manager.
“Bill may have been the hardest-working coach in the league — the first one here and the last to leave,” McNair said. “He put his heart and soul into his job, but I just thought this was the right time to make a change.”
After getting final say on personnel decisions, O’Brien made three controversial trades. He shipped outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney to Seattle when the Texans couldn’t agree to a new contract with him. He acquired offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and wide receiver Kenny Stills from Miami for a first-round draft choice in 2020 and firstand second-round picks in 2021.
Then, in a trade that caused him to get ridiculed locally and nationally, O’Brien dealt wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to Arizona for running back David Johnson, a 2020 second-round draft choice the Texans used on defensive tackle Ross Blacklock, and a 2021 fourth-round pick.
Without Hopkins, one of the NFL’s best receivers and quarterback Deshaun Watson’s favorite target, the Texans’ offense has looked out of sync all season.
Based on the team’s disappointing performance in a season with high expectations, McNair had enough ammunition to fire O’Brien.
“I respected the decision,” O’Brien said. “When we lost to Minnesota — a game we had a chance to win — I knew something like this could happen. That’s the business. I told Cal they’ve got a good team and they’ll turn it around.”