Spoiler Bob McNair: ...We had our criteria as to what we were looking for in terms of a head coach and we said that we wanted somebody that was smart, somebody was that adaptable, someone that showed strong leadership, someone that had head coach experience, had had experience in the NFL, understood what it was all about, had a passion for the game, and the dedication to winning. When we met Bill O'Brien, we knew that's what we had and he met all of those criteria, and that's why he's here today. So we're delighted that we're able to start off the New Year this way. I think you're going to really enjoy watching our new coach work. He has a great way with people. He's a great leader. He's showed that he has the ability to step into difficult situations and turn them around. He did that at Penn State in very difficult circumstances and did an outstanding job there. We know that he's going to come in here and we expect to see good things happen immediately. Rick Smith: ...I think Bob was clear in the press conference that we identified the traits and characteristics that we were looking for in the next head coach, but then we also looked at our organization and our team and we tried to look at where we felt like we were deficient and how could we look to improve those areas. Once we did that, I think one of the things Bob just talked about is intelligence -- intelligence, innovative, flexibility. That was one of the things we were looking for. That's from a football perspective, that happens from game-to-game, whether you're talking about a personnel grouping and how you attack defenses or how you attack offense, but the ability to be innovative and flexible that way, you have to have. You come out in the first half and you have a game plan that you've worked on all week, but then you have to adjust, you have to be innovative, flexible that way. And then over a course of a football season, you've got to have that same ability. We were tied for first with the Tampa Buccaneers of number of guys in injured reserve at 16 and so you've got to be able to adjust and adapt to those changing circumstances. Conversely, the Green Bay Packers were third with 15 and they're in the playoffs. So you've got to be able to do that in an environment over the course of a football season, and being innovative and flexible, intelligent is one of the things that we think that Bill represents. Another thing was accountability and toughness. You've got to be able to run when you want to run the ball, stop other people when you want to and finish games. Games are won and lost in the first five minutes of a game and, quite frankly, the last five minutes of a game. When you look back at our season, we didn't do that well. I think, if you look at the number of times that we scored in the first five minutes of a football game, we only did twice. And in the last five minutes, we scored five times, four of which were field goals and only one touchdown. So you've got to be able to have the toughness to finish football games. And that's one of the things we think he brings as well. Finally, a teacher and, when you talk about the NFL now in the salary cap era, you have got to have coaches that are teachers because you have to rely on young players to make significant contributions to your team. You've also got to have a guy who's inspirational enough who can bridge the gap with the veteran players and make sure that they inspire them to give their best. And we think that Bill does that. And then the last thing and this is one of the things that I've enjoyed about this process, getting to know this guy, is you've got to have a little charisma and personality. What you're going to find out about Bill, every man that I know and called a friend that I trust that has worked with him, to a man, talked about this man's character and they talked about how honest he is, how hard-working he is. As we have worked through this process, I have enjoyed getting to know him. I see that I think he is a man that we will all appreciate and proud to call our football coach. O'Brien On what systems he plans to run on offense and defense and the possibility of keeping any coaches already on the staff ... As far as systems go, if you look at offensively, to me, I would describe our system as a game plan system. You have to have, in my opinion, a different game plan every week because you see so many different defenses every week. It'll be a system that is adaptable and flexible. It'll be a system that the players will enjoy playing in. Defensively, everybody wants to pin you down and ask you if you're going to be a 3-4 guy or a 4-3 guy. To me, I think, right now, about 70 percent of games are played in nickel and dime defense because of the type of league it is. We'll evaluate the personnel on this team. We'll do a really good job of putting together a good football team and we'll adapt the systems to the players that we bring into this program." O'Brien on one of his former Patriots players Troy Brown saying that changing the culture in the locker room is biggest challenge for him in Houston, and if he agrees with that and how prepares to do that "Again, I just got here yesterday and we're moving on to 2014. I don't know anything about the culture of the locker room that was here last year. But I know what I believe in. To me, it's all about the team. Everybody on this football team will have a role. Those guys on this football team will determine their own role. They'll determine it by practicing well, playing well and, to me, it's about accountability, it's about demanding and it's about putting together a tough, physical, smart, fast football team that can play in all different types of environments. A team that can play in the heat of Texas and play in the winter conditions up in Denver, so to speak. We're looking forward to starting that process and putting that type of team together and really working with the guys to field a great football team here in Houston." O'Brien on what type of attributes he's looking for in a quarterback and if he has a preference for a veteran or a rookie in the Draft "Just getting here yesterday, we've already started some of these discussions, but they're very preliminary. At every position, we want a good team guy. We want a guy that is a hard worker, a guy that's physically tough, mentally tough, smart guy. It doesn't matter what position it is. To me, it's a guy that understands the team concept and understands that it's not about individual stats or individual performances. It's about doing what's best for the team and being a good teammate. So whether it's a quarterback or defensive end or linebacker or wide receiver, that's what we'll always look for here at Houston." O'Brien on how an old defensive player became an offensive coach "That's a good question. Yeah, I told somebody in the back there that I'm a much better coach than I was a player. I played defense at Brown University and my first coaching job was on offense and I think I did one year on defense at Brown as a restricted earnings guy, but every other year was on offense because that was where the job was open and so that's the job you took. You do what you're told to do and so I've always been an offensive coach." O'Brien on why he likes coaching quarterbacks so much "I think that's a fantastic position to coach because of all the things that go into it. I think the quarterback, let's start with off the field, the quarterback has to be a great teammate, a leader, a hard worker, a really good practice player, a guy that's always striving for perfection knowing that he's probably not going to get perfection but he's going to reach some level of excellence. On the field, it's a position that has to really have great knowledge not only of your own offense and your own teammate's talents on offense, but also he has to have a great knowledge of defensive football and the talents of the defensive players that you're going against. It's a job that is never ending. It's a job that you can always improve at doing, coaching quarterbacks, and it's a lot of fun to do."
Spoiler Rick Smith on what kind of say Coach O'Brien will have in bringing in personnel via the draft and free agency and the balance between him and Rick Smith "We're going to work together hand-in-hand, OK? Ultimately what we'll do is make decisions that are in the best interest of our football team. I am confident that I will work well with this guy. I think he's pretty smart. I have no problem listening to what his opinion is." O'Brien "I feel the same way. Again, I'm a coach. My passion is coaching football and coaching the team. I'm going to be a part of helping put the team together. I feel like I'm a pretty good teammate. I'm looking forward to working with Rick and putting together a really good, competitive football team for the city of Houston and Mr. McNair. I can't wait to get started on it, I can tell you that." Bob McNair on how much the Patriots pedigree influenced the hiring of Bill O'Brien "We looked at who he had worked with, not just there but also in college. I think that makes an imprint on a person. He had worked for (George) O'Leary. He had worked for Chain Gailey down at Georgia Tech. He had worked for (Ralph) Friedgen and then he had gone up with Bill Belichick in the NFL. He came up through a line of great coaches. I'm sure he learned different things from each one of them, and each one of them is different. The smart things about Bill, this Bill, is that he's going to be Bill O'Brien. He's not going to be O'Leary. He's not going to be Belichick. He's not going to be Friedgen. That's the smart way to do it. The Patriots organization is an organization that I have a lot of respect for. The Krafts are great friends. They do a great job. Belichick has done a great job. It couldn't be a better place for someone to gain a lot of valuable experience. All of that really entered into it and prepared him in an excellent way." O'Brien on if there is a Patriot way and how he was influenced by it "I think that's a better question for Mr. Kraft and Coach Belichick. I was just an assistant coach there. I was part of a great organization. The things that I learned there, in my opinion, were there is one way to win and that's as a team. It's about everybody understanding their role. It's about people practicing hard, working hard in the offseason, being good teammates, preparing well for each game. Every game is a little bit different and understanding that. Again, whatever about the Patriot way and things like that, that's a question for them, not for me. I just know that I am very, very thankful for the opportunity to work there and I'll tell you what Mr. McNair just said about Mr. Kraft. When I have spoken to Mr. Kraft, he had nothing but great things to say about Mr. McNair and the same goes for Coach Belichick. Obviously, that meant a lot to me." O'Brien on what he looks for in the other coaches that will make up his staff "I'm going to sit down with every member of the Houston Texans staff tomorrow. It will be a long day. We'll sit down and we'll talk and we'll meet eye ball to eye ball. That'll be good. It'll be good experience for me and a good experience for them. We'll go from there. We'll put together a staff of great teachers, demanding coaches. Coaches that hold their players accountable for good play. We'll put together a staff of coaches who have a passion for football, that are good family men, that understand it's important to go home. I think that's important and we'll have a really good staff of guys here to coach for the Houston Texans." O'Brien on what he sees with this team that makes him think they can be competitive right away "I think that this is a football team, having just gotten here but listening to Rick (Smith) and Mr. McNair and Cal (McNair), there are a lot of pieces in place here. Really, it's all just about hard work. Quick turnaround, rebuilding, I'm not into labels and things like that. I think you've got to get going and get to work. You've got to evaluate the team. You have to have a group of guys that participate in the offseason program as a team and comeback for minicamp and training camp in great shape and go out there and get ready to play a long season and take it one game at a time, one day at a time. That's what we're going to try to do. I think in this league the goal is to make the playoffs and that will be our goal every year, to get in the tournament. Once you get in the tournament, you've got a shot and that's what we're going to try and do every single year here." McNair on why he used the criteria of having NFL experience and head coaching experience "The criteria was established based on the fact that the NFL is different than the collegiate scene. So that's why we wanted some NFL experience. In terms of being a head coach versus a coordinator, if you look at the record, the record is that coordinators have failed much more than they have succeeded. Like 40 percent or so have made it as opposed to those who have been head coaches. The statistics back up what we were doing but there was a reason for doing it and that is if you move from being a coordinator to a head coach, it's a different position. It's not just being a coach. All of the sudden, you're chief executive officer and you have to make tough decisions about who is going to be on your staff and who is going to be on your team. A lot of these decisions are very difficult and some coaches who have been players and then become coaches, are still thinking as a player or as a coach rather than as the leader of the organization and they have trouble making some of those difficult decisions. We wanted to have someone that had shown that they could make difficult decisions and in the case of Bill, he had done that, been in a very difficult position. That was the reasoning behind it. He met all of our criteria." Smith "I think I will add to that. You also have to be specific to your particular situation and we were. We had a big universe of candidates. We did not limit ourselves in terms of having qualified candidates to fill this position. We interviewed some guys that would have, in my opinion, done a great job and were very capable of handling the job. We just feel like this man beside me is the guy to lead us in the future. We felt great about him when we sat down. We felt great about him when we researched him. We think we were exhaustive in our process and we're happy that we got this guy as our head football coach." O'Brien on how familiar he is with the Texans current roster and how much studying did he do before he came in "I can tell you that I basically studied what I saw on paper. So the answer to your question is that I've got a lot of work to do on this team and the sooner that I can get back to my office and start that work, it'll be better. I can't wait to get going and to study this football team and watch all these players and I'm really looking forward to that. That's one of the things about football that I love. I love to sit in there and watch tape and really understand each player's talent and skill set. Of course, I know J.J. Watt and Andre Johnson, along with a lot of the players that I've met out here today have had really good, Chris Myers and Brian Cushing, have had really excellent careers. There are a lot of good football players on this team. I know that." O'Brien on if there is one thing about the team that jumps out at him "No. Again, no, I don't think so. I would tell you this in talking to people around the league and then doing my own research, I do believe that this is a strong roster of players and it's going to be fun to evaluate it." O'Brien on if he feels more prepared for a head coaching job in the NFL after being a head coach in college "Certainly. I think anytime you go from being a coordinator to being a head coach, that's a difficult move just for the fact that you've never done that. When you sit in that seat for the first time and all the different things that come across your desk start to come across your desk and all the different people that come into your office on a daily basis and they start coming in, that's a different experience that you've never had as an assistant coach. I think that, again, my two years at Penn State really helped me in being prepared for this job. This is going to be obviously a challenging job but it's also going to be a job I can't wait to get started on. We've already started on it. Like I said, looking forward to working with Rick on evaluating this team and putting together a really good 2014 team. Yeah, certainly, my experience at Penn State, I would definitely tell you, helped me for this job. No question about it. And again, I reiterate, I appreciate the opportunity that Penn State gave me, Rod Erickson, Dave Joyner. I appreciate the way those guys played for us there at Penn State."
3 months of saying Tom savage is his guy. Tom Savage takes all the 1st team snaps so Watson has no chemistry with the 1st string. Tom Savage doesn't have a bad game just a bad line and bad play calling. After 1 half of football, he gets pulled for Watson who hasn't been adequately prepped. The last 3 months has become worthless because the whole team is thinking Savage is the starter. Watson is now using real games as his practice games when he could have easily split the time in camp. This stuff doesn't take place in a vacuum. The bad QB play could very well be because O'Brien is a dummy.
Why is 'No O'Brien calling for plays where Savage has to drop back and get hit over and over? He didn't adapt his play-calling, he just changed his QB. Tom was passing well he was just holding on to the ball too long.
Maybe Tom can't move quick enough, or maybe he has no peripheral vision to see a hit coming. Don't ask me. As for why Bill does what he does, I have never understood. All I meant was people would have b****ed if he left Savage in, and people b****ed with him coming out. I think Savage throws better and Watson escapes pressure better. Somebody with a magic want needs to just turn them into one QB who can pass and run. Even then, if might not make a difference with our offensive line. All I do know is that history is repeating itself with famous words from the past..."Houston, we have a problem."
No, the blame is knowing the o-line was crap, not addressing this issue, naming Savage as a starter with all of the number 1 practice reps, knowing Savage is immobile and reads progressions slowly and *then* throwing out all of that preparation away after one half. I don't have a problem with Watson playing- I just see those in-game flaws necessitating Watson starting as being there long before this half and O'Brien was caught flat footed. This offensive guru owes Tom Brady 75% of his salary.
OBrien was gifted both his first year here. Now Arian got hurt, but letting the OL fall apart is on him and Rick. They also can't find another playmaker besides Hopkins, who Kubiak drafted.
QBs and their strengths. Fitzpatrick. Smart, mobile, accurate. Hoyer. Hard worker. System knowledge Mallet. Big arm, swag. System knowledge Brock. arm, mobility Savage. Arm, system knowledge Watson. Mobility, gamer, playmaker What kind of QB succeeds under O'Brien? Goats? Cuz there's only one of thems.
Bill O'Brien needs to go see the Bob's, he clearly doesn't coach defense, he doesn't coach special teams, he obviously isn't worth a damn at coaching offense.....
Thinking I need to change my vote. If he didn't truly have faith in Savage the entire offseason was a waste. Like another poster said if Watson could have at least split first team reps he would've been better prepared to come in. Now you gotta go with Watson cuz Savage knows as soon as he screws up he will be pulled and his confidence will be completely shot. This guy is the complete opposite of a QB Guru
Here's my problem with BOB: You paid a ransom in the draft to get your QB. Then plugged him behind your 4th-year backup QB in preseason, told everyone that's how you're going to roll when we all knew Watson would have to step in early because Savage isn't starter material. This set up the team for failure. Watson should have been given the keys to the offense in preseason with all the first-team reps. Sure, you don't want to throw him to the wolves that's why you have 3 quality running backs: Miller, Blue, and Foreman, use them by committee as a run-first team. Let Watson progress into the role with simple read options, bootlegs, play-actions, etc until he knows the offense and is ready. This would have also saved your poor offensive line the embarrassment of giving up 10 sacks. If you can't protect the pocket then run block and go after the defense. As it is, you're now stuck having to start Watson on 4 days notice.
Before the start of the year "yes" had a 3 point lead on "no". After week one "yes" leads by practically 10 points. LOL. Can't wait to see how much the spread jumps after Thursday.
I was off the O'brien bandwagon the first minute of hardknocks when he was talking about the QB position and said "we got 2 really good QBs" referring to Hoyer and Mallett. The guy can't get out of his own way, and he needs to go. But I'm sure he'll put together another near .500 season and stick around... as will Rick.
