Texans Hire Bill O'Brien as Head Coach

[Keith]

Jason La Canfora @JasonLaCanfora3h
Assistants Bill O'Brien will want to bring to HOU- Stan Hixon from Penn State (formerly coaches WRs in NFL); Pats TE coach George Godsey
https://twitter.com/JasonLaCanfora/s...86544471973890

Godsey has deep ties to O'Brien. Played QB at Georgia Tech when O'Brien coached there. Coached for O'Leary at UCF (QBs & RBs) before coming to the Pats in 2011.

[Warren]

More staff reports/speculation:

Godsey (mentioned above) would be OC
Penn St. special assistant to the head coach and director of player development Jim Bernhardt
Penn St. RB coach/recruiting coordinator Charles London
Penn St. DC/CB coach John Butler
Former Bucs offensive assistant Ben McDaniels, if his brother Josh doesn't get a head coach job and he doesn't join him
Iowa OL coach Brian Ferentz for OL coach

[Keith]

Ahem...

@JasonLaCanfora
Many people in the league believe if Texans GM Rick Smith had his way, Ken Whisenhunt would have been his top choice. More change could come

https://twitter.com/JasonLaCanfora/s...79035968614400

So, left to question here how much power Rick Smith still has. The team let go of director of pro personnel Brian Gardner and pro scout Kevin Murphy on Friday.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by Keith

So, left to question here how much power Rick Smith still has.

But this has always been the question, hasn't it, how much power does Rick Smith have? My feeling gathered from various information sources over the years was always that Smith had, shall we say, limited influence on draft day. Maybe that was good, maybe not. Could you have done worse in the later rounds yourself? I doubt it. Would a monkey throwing a dart yield worse results? I doubt it.

Smith had no experience that would lead anyone to believe that he was suited for or prepared for the role of general manager of an NFL franchise. It always seemed to mew like Kubiak had brought along Denver's jailhouse snitch to be his yes man / bag man.

McNair fired Marciano, something I thought he would literally never do. Maybe as he ages fielding a winning team is beginning to trump some other considerations. If so that would be about the best offseason news I could have asked for.

[Warren]

I have no idea what these two particular guys did or didn't do to get fired but it's good to see that the personnel side of the organization is getting some scrutiny. From the press conference for Kubiak's firing on all of the talk had been about what great talent the team had and the pro and college scouting departments seemed to be getting a complete pass.

[Arky]

I think, maybe for the first time, Rick Smith has felt the heat. At first, I think he was a newbie (to GM) who just wanted to make sure he crossed his t's and dotted his i's. Hearing him speak on the radio, sounds like he's got a direction he wants to pursue...... but so far (after 8 yrs on the job), it's not always working as planned....

On draft day, I always pictured a "council" in the war room. Wade Phillips (or whomever) walks into the room, picks up a couple of chocolate iced doughnuts out of the Shipley's box, gets a cup of coffee, plops down in a chair and declares, "I sure could use a linebacker in the 2nd or 3rd round". Kubiak, Dennison, etc., even R Smith, all nod "OK". The scouts standing by for consultation....

Just speculating but, I think most of the Texan business is handled this way, i.e. a council. While Kubes and Smith and maybe one or two others had veto power, I'm guessing it was seldom used....

The past scouting department had a few lucky hits but lately just too many JAG's - not even solid players, just barely serviceable.....

[nunusguy]

I saw Bob "the invisible man" O'Brien last night on local sports news, and it might be the first sighting since his presser where McNair introduced him as the Texans new HC. He was at some kind of event with another new HC, UTs Charles Strong. Interestingly Strong was dressed-out in UT garb, but I O'Brien wasn't wearing Texans gear, looked like he was decked out in Under Armour, or something like that ? But the Texans' new HC has sure been low-profile since his hiring, but with the Combine this week I'd expect that to change.