Bill O'Brien emerges as Houston Texans No. 1 target for new head coach

He's been wanting to return to the NFL, but buyout was too big and not good to leave a job after one year. He would come out and kill the rumor immediately for sake of recruiting if he wasn't negotiating with the Texans.

 

Rick Smith is obviously no great shakes but giving O'Brien 100% control may not be the thing to do, especially since this is his first time as an NFL head coach.

I don't think puppet GM's are a good idea at all.

 

Are we really comfortable rolling the dice with Rick Smith for another draft?

 

Rick smith may not have a say and be on his way out if Bob wants O'B bad enough and its one of his stipulations.

 

Rick Smith has even less credentials to get 100% say in personnel. He's been the puppet GM all along.

 

With a new sheriff coming in, Rick Smith won't have total control over the draft and free agents. O'Brien will have more say so but two opinions are better than one. Firing Smith just to hire an O'Brien puppet is very risky IMO. Good/great coaches aren't necessarily great draft evaluators.

I say this as someone who was on the O'Brien bandwagon from the moment Kubiak was fired, well before everyone here fell in love with him.

 

What makes you say rick smith is a better puppet GM than obriens potential puppet GM?

Getting a quality head coach is far more important than appeasing Rick Smith, who really hasn't been in charge or proven that he's been the one responsible for all the "good" draft picks and free agent signings.

All we know is that this team is 2-13 in cap hell, in part due to extensions he passed out like they were going out of style. His only known responsibility has been the salary cap manager, and he has done a pretty poor job of that.

 

Im not so sure rick has had 100% control over draft/roster decisions

 

The last thing O'B needs is ol knucklehead Smith getting in his way of building something special here.

 

wait.... what??

 

i sure hope so because nobody beats the wiz!

 

Nick Barlotta ‏@NickBarlottaTSL 2m
Sort of Updated News... Bill O'Brien and the Texans have reached an agreement.. I am hearing deal is done

 

who is this guy, just under 600 followers.. idk how serious to take him, guys with track records tend to develop a following..

 

I was hoping that McNair would interview multiple coaches, but nothing Uncle Bob does surprises me. Does he really think he needs to act quickly for fear O'Brien will get hired by someone else? Why is this guy being treated as such a hot commodity? McNair is acting like he's on his first date, too eager and too excited. He needs to calm down and let the process play out. Maybe RR gets fired (probably not). Wouldn't you at least want to interview him? To see what he has to say? There are others names, too. Why the rush?

 

If you think he is the guy, you hire him before the market value is set for him, at a price you are ready to pay...

1. Lions
2. Redskins
3. Jets
4. Dallas?
5. Minny
6. Oakland
7. Giants
8. Atlanta?

Glad the Texans are ready to move on from the stench rather quickly...

Looking like Wade gets to remain in Houston as DC...unless of course a Head coach gig opens up for him.

 

Who said wade was staying? Hope not. Lets get fresh everything.

 

Wade is likely a goner into retirement because nobody will hire him as head coach.

 

He didn't have total control before. Or so we've been led to believe.

Rick Smith kept his job in part because he convinced McNair that the coaching staff had too much of a say in personnel decisions. And for all we know, he could be right. Maybe Smith wanted to go after Peyton Manning but Kubes wanted to stick with Schaub. I remember that Keshawn Martin was pretty much a Marciano pick. That Gary asked him to identify WR's that could be used as return men and Martin was at the top of Joe's list. So the Texans took him in the 4th round. That tells me that Rick didn't have that much control over the draft.

However much control Rick gets, it'll probably at least be the same if not more than what he had before. McNair's not going to keep him around, seemingly because the last coaching staff is taking the blame for bad personnel moves, and then give him less control. The only reason to give him less control would be if he was being blamed for the personnel moves, but if that were the case, he would've been fired along with Gary. And if Gary & Co. are taking the blame on that, that makes it less likely that Bob is going to give the same level of power to another first time NFL head coach.

And I'm totally fine with that. Let the coaches coach and let the GM handle the roster and salary cap. Things get less murky that way and it's clearer who's responsible for what. I'm willing to let Smith take more control. If bad moves are made then the blame can fall squarely on him and he'll be fired. If you split control between the GM and coach then it becomes less clear who's responsible for what.

Last thing I heard was that a financial deal with O'Brien was pretty much struck and they were negotiating over control of personnel decisions. That tells me that O'Brien would like more control than what the Texans have offered thus far. Another sign that Bob plans for Smith to have more say than he did before.

 

He's the most exciting option that fits Bob's criteria simply because he's the only non-retread on the list. But he will be a hot commodity. The Lions have already secretly reached out to him. If the Texans want him, they'll have competition. So since they're the only ones capable of conducting interviews and negotiating contracts at the moment, it makes sense for them to go ahead and get the guy they want before anybody else even has the opportunity.

 

Not really - because if the coach stays, he didn't lie. If the coach leaves, a new coach doesn't have his baggage. No coach will ever do what you suggest, right or wrong. Every coach will tell their players they are absolutely staying. Lying is part of the recruiting business, unfortunately.

Signing day isn't until February anyway. So all of these recruits can change their mind if he leaves. What O'Brien is going to do is try to ensure that if he stays, none of his recruits have second thoughts.