Bill O’Brien the GM couldn’t save Bill O’Brien the head coach in Houston

When I think about Bill O’Brien, I go back to 2017 when Deshaun Watson was a Houston Texans rookie.

The Texans started that season with Tom Savage at quarterback and were running their traditional New England Patriots-Bill O’Brien type offense. It wasn’t all that effective because Tom Savage isn’t Tom Brady, but in an instant O’Brien just flipped it. He threw Watson in there – at halftime in Week 1 – and Watson scrambled around and made some plays.

They had a Thursday game the following week, but after that with an extra few days to work with O’Brien completely transformed that offense.

They started using zone runs and run-pass options. It looked like they had Dabo Swinney and that Clemson coaching staff flying in there and installing their offense, then added in some NFL wrinkles, and it was brilliant. I remember thinking, “This is coach of the year stuff.”

They put up 33 points on the Patriots in Week 3 and over five games averaged 39 points with Watson and DeAndre Hopkins slicing up some defenses – Hopkins had eight for 224 and a TD against the Rams in there, three touchdown catches against the Chiefs.

Then, Watson tore up his knee in practice and that was it for 2017.

O’Brien is a good coach, a good play caller. He put together good offenses in Houston, and New England before that. But his success with the Xs and Os probably hurt him as a general manager, and precipitated his firing this week with the Texans at 0-4.

On top of being a great coach he has a lot of pride and his ego is probably similar to other coaches who I’ve run across in my career, and when you have a guy like DeAndre Hopkins, who is in that group of elite wide receivers, you have to handle him the right way, and O’Brien didn’t.

Taking care of Hopkins, WR1

Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Jerry Rice, those guys all feel like they’re the best player on the field. They want the football, and if it’s not coming to them then they’re being underutilized.

Put that dynamic up against a coach who really feels like he has a good system and he’s a good coach, and that he doesn’t need a player telling him how to move the ball up and down the field.

That’s where O’Brien and Hopkins started to clash, and it ended badly.

The Texans gave O’Brien the GM title back in January, and he ended up trading Hopkins to Arizona for David Johnson and a couple of draft picks.

Bill O’Brien the coach had Bill O’Brien as the general manager, and if he didn’t maybe this would have played out differently.

But it was just him, and if you don’t have someone to check your moves or anything, that’s a dangerous position to be in. There was no one there to say, “That’s not a good idea,” or “Let’s not do that.”

There was no one there to say to Bill O’Brien, or to DeAndre Hopkins, “Let’s make this work.”

You have to have that dynamic.

The 49ers are a good example. Every player on that team fits Kyle Shanahan’s scheme, and he obviously has a hand in that. John Lynch is the GM and he makes the decisions, but they make them together. Two really good football minds are better than one.

Bill Belichick has the final say on every decision in New England and that’s what every head coach covets, but there’s also a structure around him.

Breaking up a dynamic duo

Watson and Hopkins were one of the best pairings of quarterback and wide receiver there was in the NFL. The normal scheme of that offense was good, but Watson would elevate it with what he could do outside the Xs and Os and then Hopkins with his catch radius made it a great pairing.

If they had a one-on-one match up outside then that’s where it was going, or Watson could put it up and give Hopkins a chance to make a play.

When you take that guy and ship him out, there’s no excuse for that in my opinion. You have to make it work. At the end of the day, you both want to win, and if DeAndre Hopkins wants the football it’s because he believes he’s the guy who’s going to win the football game for you.

There’s no excuse for not being able to make that work, and if you make that trade then you better be good.

And, as good as that offense is, if the Texans don’t have a guy to make dynamic plays to really threaten defenses they’re just not going to be effective. Unless David Johnson suddenly turns into the David Johnson of five years ago and is going to rack up 2,000 yards from scrimmage, they’re not going to pull enough attention away from those receivers.

Not that any NFL receiver is mediocre, but the Texans’ receiving corps doesn’t really scare anyone.

So, really, what happened in Houston is Bill O’Brien the general manager got his head coach fired … and it was the same person.

Fantasy pick: Buccaneers defense

The Bears’ quarterback situation is getting most of the attention, but the loss of running back Tarik Cohen already is having a big impact – he’s out for the year with a knee injury. When Cohen was out there, coach Matt Nagy was a little more creative with his offense, but last week against the Colts it was just very basic. They couldn’t run it, were asking Nick Foles to make big-time throws into tight coverage and had only 269 yards after averaging 368.0 in their first three games. This week they’re playing the Buccaneers – a really good, fast defense. The Bears are going to look really slow by comparison, so I’d lean toward the Bucs really getting after them.

This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 12:27 PM.