Houston Texans General Manager Search: Rumors, Updates, More

Friday. A 4:00 p.m. news dump. It was announced at that point that the Texans had fired Brian Gaine as their general manager after a horrendous offseason and will now be looking to find a new GM. The only reason to surface as to why the Texans canned Gaine is that Bill O’Brien and Gaine allegedly had a strained relationship and were not eating off the same plate. Reports of this sort of tiff are to be expected, and we are likely going to see a whole lot more about it.

Remember the good old days when Rick Smith allegedly kept Bill O’Brien from cutting Ryan Mallett after Mallett missed the team flight to Miami? Or when Smith and O’Brien both blamed one another for the [NAME REDACTED] signing? Or the dispute about who was more responsible for the Texans trading up for and selecting Deshaun Watson? Get ready for more of that.

Houston has already started interviewing candidates to replace Gaine. Or, perhaps more cynically, they satiated the Rooney Rule until they find someone from New England’s front office to become their new GM. Since Gaine was terminated on Friday afternoon, the Texans have reportedly interviewed Ray Farmer and Martin Mayhew.

The rumor Nick Caserio is the Texans’ top choice for the job persists, despite the Patriots refusing to allow Caserio to interview for the same opening in Houston back in January of 2018 before the Texans hired Gaine.

That’s the news as of this morning. There will be more interviews. Look for the Texans to hire a new general manager before mandatory minicamps begin, I guess. Who knows what this crazy team is going to do?

UPDATE:

Albert Breer with Sports Illustrated also added more clarification why Gaine was fired.

While the McNair family surprised many by siding with O’Brien in his power struggle with former GM Rick Smith in early 2018, it was never hard to figure the logic. And just as O’Brien won over Smith, 15 months later, O’Brien got Easterby, which would ultimately lead to a second GM being pushed out in a span that encompassed all of 17 games for the franchise.

What’s next? If you follow the above breadcrumbs, Nick Caserio, the Patriots’ VP of player personnel, is next. Or at least, that would be the outcome the Texans would want. We’ll explain.

O’Brien is a big fan of Alabama State OT Tytus Howard, and the scouts were thrilled to draft him, regardless of whether he was taken higher than the league consensus. Meanwhile, second-round OT Max Scharping has already impressed, as has third-round TE Kahale Warring.

O’Brien and Caserio (offensive coaches together in 2007, O’Brien’s first NFL season) are very close. Easterby and Caserio are very close. And here’s one thing I found interesting—three guys that know all involved well told me over the weekend that they saw O’Brien as good a fit for Caserio as a coach as Caserio’s college teammate, Josh McDaniels. Or maybe an even better fit.

He claims it was because of Easterby, the Texans newest vice president of team development, who wants his own general manager I guess, and create some unholy trinity of him, O’Brien, and Nick Caserio. I have no idea what’s happening here.