By Jordan Long
The Houston Texans face the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. Houston is looking for their first win of the year. With their 0-4 start, Houston decided it was time to fire Head coach Bill O’Brien. O’Brien also served as their General Manager.
O’Brien was hired prior to the 2014 season. The Texans had just let go of Gary Kubiak following a 2-11 start. Kubiak was 61-64 as the Texans’ Head Coach, a winning percentage of .488 with two trips to the playoffs. O’Brien was hoping to do more.
The Texans went 9-7 in his first 3 seasons but ended up in the postseason in 2015 and 2016 winning the AFC South Division. In 2016, they managed to advance to the Divisional Round but lost to the New England Patriots. 2017, the Texans went 4-12, the worst under O’Brien. In 2018 they finished 11-5. Last year the Texans ended 10-6 and advanced to the Divisional Round but were beaten by Kansas City.
In the offseason, O’Brien made a puzzling move which was part of the reason he was let go. He traded their top wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, to Arizona for running back David Johnson. Hopkins has flourished in Arizona with 397 receiving yards and 1 touchdown to this point. Johnson on the other hand totaled 197 rushing yards with 2 touchdowns. Will Fuller is the Texans’ best wide receiver but he totaled only 274 yards receiving so far this season.
The Texans have started slowly this year. They total 327.5 yards per game, 27th in the NFL. They are the worst at running the football, averaging 75.5 yards per game. They score 20 points per game. On defense, Houston gives up 393.3 yards per game and 31.5 points per game, not a recipe for success. The Texans needed to let him go.
According to ESPN.com, O’Brien said, “In the end, in this business, it’s a bottom-line business. We weren’t able to get it to where we needed to get it. … I understand we fell short in terms of taking this team further in the playoffs. But I do 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.”
The Texans decided their interim Head Coach for the rest of the year is Romeo Crennel who will be the oldest Head Coach in NFL history at 73 years old. Crennel has been a Head Coach in this league before with Cleveland and Kansas City. His record is a disappointing 28-55, a winning percentage of .337. Crennel might be the answer to turn the Texans’ season around. If he can coach them to a 8-8 or 7-9 record, Crennel could be the coach next year. Otherwise, the Texans will look for a new Head Coach in the offseason.
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