QB sees newcoach as needing to bring ‘whole culture shift’ plus energy, discipline
When the Texans hire their new head coach, quarterback Deshaun Watson plans to lobby him to keep offensive coordinator Tim Kelly.
Kelly finished his seventh season with the Texans, his second as the coordinator and first as the play-caller.
In a 4-12 season that ended with Sunday’s 41-38 loss — the Texans’ eighth one-score defeat — Watson was superb. He set career bests with 4,823 yards passing, a 70.2 completion percentage, 33 touchdowns, six interceptions, an 8.87 average per completion and a 112.4 rating.
Watson’s yards and average per attempt led the NFL. His rating was second to Aaron Rodgers’ 121.5.
There’s no denying the substantial role Kelly played in Watson’s success over the last two seasons. And while the new coach will probably want to bring in his own guy, that won’t keep Watson from endorsing Kelly,
whether he’s part of the new regime or looks for a job with another team.
Watson gives a lot of credit to Kelly, who’s also the quarterbacks coach, for having a profound influence on the best season of his four-year career.
“Most definitely,” Watson said Monday during a Zoom conference call. “Over the past two years, Tim has really taken my game to another level as far as knowledge, reading defenses, understanding run points and run schemes, different concepts and different situations.
“His knowledge of the game is very bright, and he really helped me (play) the best football I’ve played inmy career.”
Unfortunately for Watson and his teammates, his exceptional performance didn’t translate into winning, but that won’t keep him from stumping for Kelly with the new head coach. Watson has already told Cal McNair how he feels during two conversations with the owner.
“I had a call with Cal yesterday, and (he) knows that,” Watson said about retaining Kelly. “I have all the respect and love for Tim and definitely want him around as long as possible.”
Which may not be possible, of course. Kelly might have a better chance of staying if the new coach has a defensive background like San Francisco’s Robert Saleh or Indianapolis’ Matt Eberflus.
Or the new coach could have an offensive background and plan to focus on the big picture rather than call plays. Candidates in that category could be Kansas City’s Eric Bieniemy, Tennessee’s Arthur Smith, Buffalo’s Brian Daboll or Jim Caldwell, the former head coach at Indianapolis and Detroit who has already interviewed.
Watson doesn’t care what background the next coach has or where he comes from, only that he’s the best possible candidate and hires — or keeps — the best people possible.
“I’m not sure what exactly the ownership wants to do, but whoever it is has got to come in with a great structure and plan and making sure we’re accountable for every action,” Watson said. “We’re all striving to go for one goal, and that’s raising that (Lombardi) trophy.
“It’s got to start from the bottom, and we’ve got to build up. It might take some time, but we all can’t be impatient. We can’t be discouraged. We’ve got to go take it one step at a time and go get it.”
Watson knows what he thinks the Texans need in a new head coach, who’ll have to change the atmosphere at NRG Stadium, where losing became a habit this season.
“We need a whole culture shift,” he said. “We need new energy. We need discipline. We need structure. We need a leader so we can follow that leader as players.”
Watson and his teammates don’t want the kind of dysfunction that threatened to rip apart the team this season. They want a new head coach who’s a leader of men, who can command the room and make them believe in him and his mission to resurrect a franchise that deteriorated into disharmony.
“We’ve got to have the love of not just the game of football, because that’s what we do, but the love for people and the people in this organization,” Watson said. “We’ve all got to be on the same page. There’s too many different minds, too many different ideas and too many people who think they have this power, and it’s not like that.”
In other words, Watson believes the Texans need a coach who can unite the building.
“We need someone that stands tall, and this is who we’re following, and this is the way it goes,” he said. “We’re going to do it this way to win.”
Watson plans to learn from what he experienced this season as he prepares for next season.
“Every good, bad, ugly experience is definitely a learning lesson,” he said. “That’s how I’ve always looked at life. Even if we went 12-4, it would’ve been a great learning experience. You take the bad, and you turn it to a positive. You use that momentum to continue to improve your game.”
When it comes to hiring a new general manager and coach, Watson is the No. 1 asset the Texans have to offer.
Romeo Crennel, who completed the season as the interim coach and said Monday he might like to return if the new coach is interested, knows the new regime will be impressed with Watson on and off the field.
“Deshaun is pretty levelheaded,” Crennel said. “He really enjoys the game of football. He enjoys playing the game.
“A lot of guys in the situation we were in and the way we were losing games, their attitude would go downhill. His attitude never went downhill. He was always upbeat. He was always looking to make a play. He was lifting the guys around him.
“He can do it all. He puts up big numbers. He put up big numbers when we had the good guys (starters), and he put up good numbers when we had the replacements. If there’s improvement on certain areas of the offense, he might even be better.”