Houston Texans: Final thoughts on Bill O’Brien and moving forward

Cal McNair and the Houston Texans finally fired Bill O’Brien.

After months of rage writing, hours of crying at my desk in front of my computer, and praying for a sliver of hope, the Houston Texans finally fired Bill O’Brien as head coach and general manager of the team this week.

With the way I constantly heard about a great relationship between current Executive Vice President of Football Operations Jack Easterby, current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Cal McNair, and O’Brien, I thought I’d die before that trio ever got separated.

Apparently they were not as eye-to-eye as it seemed. Before we get digging into what the Houston Texans should do to continue the season, I think it’s important I ask one simple question: Why did it take this long to fire O’Brien?

Somebody is probably saying that it only took four games before he was fired, which is true, but it shouldn’t have taken this long. It should’ve happened before the DeAndre Hopkins trade. It should’ve happened at halftime of the playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs when the 24-0 lead evaporated into the sky, and came back down as a 51-7 point swing.

If you don’t want to call any of those reasons as legitimate, let’s talk for a second about some news about Bill O’Brien that came out after his firing. Allow me to show you exactly what I am referring to via various tweets from Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle as he reported on the firing of O’Brien this week:

Wilson also added this bit of information in a recent tweet this week:

Wilson then spoke about the “apparent temper” of O’Brien speaking about various arguments:

Here is one last tweet from Wilson about O’Brien and his tenure while with the Houston Texans:

In the past I’ve always mentioned O’Brien’s stubbornness, but I always referred to it as something that was relative to on-the-field issues and maybe some management relationship problems.

I assumed his stubbornness mainly consisted of trying to force a successful New England offense onto an entirely different team years later, along with kicking out multiple GM’s because of relationship issues. Don’t forget about the relationship problems with higher star players and how that affected things.

Now I’m reading about his alleged constant yelling and arguing, and not in a healthy way, in order to vent frustration along with using profanities to fire somebody. How is this kind of attitude suppose to be good for team morale? O’Brien always emphasized having a locker room full of great guys who get along, but it’s clear (according to reports) O’Brien wasn’t following that moral code for himself.

O’Brien is in the NFL for a reason, and even though he always had temper attached to his name, it must’ve been controllable for him to get this far.  According to the above tweets, it was really starting to become harder to control over these last two or three years.

With so many people questioning his every decision that had to lead to only more frustration because while the Texans still weren’t able to get over the hump. Emotion was getting to the best of O’Brien and he allegedly had horrible ways of responding to those emotions.

You would think the front office would see all of this unfold and act upon it as necessary, but apparently not. This goes way deeper than a blown lead, a horrible trade, and starting a season 0-4. O’Brien’s frustration was growing because he was struggling to get this team going, and the front office should’ve taken note of this and responded long ago.

I wish Bill O’Brien all the best of luck going forward, but if he wants another shot as a head coach, assuming all of these tweets are valid, he’s going to need some time off from football and take a long look at himself in front of the mirror.

O’Brien’s personality had grown far beyond stubbornness towards frustration and anger, because we still don’t have all of the details that went on while O’Brien was there, but the feeling is even the players knew that he needed to go.

Now it is time to look ahead, and let’s discuss how the Houston Texans should move forward from here on out.

Option 1: Turn this season into an experiment season

For some Houston Texans players this may be a hard option to digest. Then at the same time, other players might find it as a way to start something new. If the Texans decide that maybe this isn’t a type of year to go all out to try and clinch a spot in playoffs, there are advantages that come.

The Houston Texans can spend time playing rookies and players who haven’t had much playing time, along with taking their time to try to find offensive and defensive plans that work. There would obviously be a lot of experimenting involved, which likely means that the Houston Texans wouldn’t get very far unless everything clicks immediately.

If the Houston Texans choose to go this route, it serves great advantages as they might find a player low in their depth chart or practice squad that really stands out, and may have a much bigger role in the future.

At the same time, the offense and defense can each spend more time trying to find rhythm between each other, discovering what works, and these are things that the Texans can definitely carry into the next year with their new coaching staff.

This may also help in finding the right coaching and GM candidates that fit well with what goes well with this team.

The only problem with this option is pretty much giving up the idea of competing as hard as possible this season. However, considering that two of four teams in this division are doing well along with the fact that the Houston Texans are already well behind with their record being 0-4, this may be easier than to accept than a few weeks ago.

Option 2: Forget the 0-4, go for it all

This option is pretty much the opposite of Option 1. It would mean that with the players still trying to win and go all-in, and the lower guys on the depth chart probably won’t get many snaps.

What advantages would this serve? Believe it or not, there are plenty of advantages from this one as well. If the Houston Texans decide to go all-in, we may see more big plays that show definite potential for next year. Also with them going all-in, the starters will have more experience with one another and will likely be able to blend together as well. However, there is one pro that really stands out.

The Houston Texans are still a mess. They are deep in cap space with not much left as this team currently has the highest payroll in the NFL, and with the lack of draft picks, it can be really difficult to improve this team at all this offseason. This likely leads to fear of future coaching and general manager candidates, likely leaving them to pass up the opportunity, especially if a better one comes up.

However, by competing, coaches and GM’s would likely see a lot more potential from this team. It could be very enticing towards some coaches, as this team would look a lot better with a winning record and knowing how much we change after starting 0-4, especially with Deshaun Watson.

One of the reasons this option may be enticing is because the amount of powerhouse teams the Texans will be facing greatly decrease, though it isn’t much easier. With the schedule easing up, slightly, there is a chance for the Texans to show what they can do moving forward and make this offseason seem like less of an obstacle.

Of course, by choosing this option, it’s unlikely that the Texans will be able to find a “diamond in the rough” and with the gameplay being forced for success, it’s unlikely that a rhythm of consistency will be found. But hey, at least it’d be more entertaining.

Option 3:  A mix of both Option 1 and 2

I’m going to be pretty brief with this one because the title of Option 3 is pretty self explanatory.

If the Houston Texans choose Option 3, then they can go either way. If the Texans choose Option 2 but are still losing, then they may decide to shift more towards an Option 1 approach early, and still have time to get some advantages that it provides for the remainder of the season.

Meanwhile, if it turns out that the Texans continue to win, then maybe they should stick to Option 2 and see how far they can go. They don’t have to necessarily pick one option, as they could blend the two.

It could even turn out such that they try Option 1 and see that everything is working, so they shift into Option 2 with what was learned and move forward. There matter of fact is the Texans need to improve either for the future or for the current team, because what happened the first four weeks didn’t work.

My Final Thoughts

As much as I hated and questioned Bill O’Brien’s time in Houston, I wish him the best going forward. He still deeply cared about the Houston Texans while working with the team.

Though I continued to promote the dislike for O’Brien throughout the city while I was mentioning everything that went wrong under his time, I always failed to point out the fact that he really wanted to do what was in the best interest of the team, even though it never showed.

I hope O’Brien puts himself in the best position moving forward. I’m rooting for him, but at the same time moving on from the Houston Texans was the best option for everybody involved.