Houston Texans: Bill O’Brien ranked in lower half of NFL head coaches

Do the Houston Texans have a head coach that is actually in the lower half of all coaches in the NFL?

Since joining the Houston Texans in 2014 as their head coach, Bill O’Brien has had success with a .525 winning percentage, four winning seasons in five years and three AFC South championships.

Even with those accolades, wins in the big games and playoffs really haven’t been consistent, resulting in O’Brien being in the hot seat and being ranked in the lower half of NFL head coaches, according to an NFL.com article.

NFL.com Analyst Elliot Harrison recently ranked all 32 NFL head coaches from best to worst, resulting in O’Brien being ranked at 19th overall, being listed just ahead of former Texans defensive coordinator and current Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.

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In the NFL.com article, Harrison wrote the following on O’Brien and his tenure with the Texans:

"“His detractors will say he’s good enough to get ya beat in the playoffs. Then again, O’Brien has helped the Texans post a winning season in four out of his five years with the team. That’s after taking over a squad that went 2-14 the year before he got there …”"

In his first five seasons with the Texans, O’Brien has had just one losing season in 2017 at 4-12 overall. His first three seasons saw records of 9-7 overall, and this past year in 2018 the Texans finished 11-5, by far his best finish as a head coach.

One of the issues for O’Brien is the aforementioned fact he can get a team to the playoffs, but once they are there, the team usually has negative results. O’Brien is 1-3 in the playoffs, and in his three division titles with the franchise he is the winningest head coach in terms of division championships as the other two were won under Gary Kubiak, the coach whom O’Brien replaced. Overall in his five seasons with the Texans, O’Brien has a career coaching record of 42-38.

Granted, O’Brien isn’t the best head coach in the NFL, and according to this NFL.com list coaches just ahead of O’Brien are Doug Marrone of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 18th and Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys in 17th overall.

Marrone is 31-35 overall (.470 winning percentage) for his five years as a head coach, with two playoff wins in three games (all in 2017), and after nine seasons Garrett is 2-3 in the playoffs with a 77-59 record all with the Cowboys.

In their overall records for their career, O’Brien should be ahead of Marrone, and in being compared to Garrett they are about the same because they both have had teams who have lost games in the playoffs in which they should have won. Both have questionable game management, and for O’Brien, this is most likely a make-or-break season as a new general manager will arrive next season.

O’Brien needs to get the Texans rolling on all cylinders this season, and his team needs to win the big games, starting off with their Week 1 game against the New Orleans Saints to set the tone for the season on Monday Night Football.

Houston also needs to avenge their losses against the Indianapolis Colts, and if they can’t do that under O’Brien, plus have playoff success, he could drop off this coaches rankings list altogether, at least with the Texans.