It’s Been Nearly Four Months, And The Texans Still Haven’t Hired A Head Coach

Your Houston Texans have been without a head coach since October 5th, 2020, when they fired Bill O’Brien. For those keeping score at home, that’s 3.5 months. In that time, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons, Detroit Lions, New York Jets and Los Angeles Chargers have all fired a head coach and hired another one. Only the Philadelphia Eagles and Houston Texans remain coachless at this point.

Now, ‘word on the street’ is that the head coaching gig in H-Town is the “most undesirable job” in the NFL right now. Most likely due to Jack Easterby - who, as of this writing, still hadn’t manned up and resigned. While that may or may not be true, the idea that an assistant coach would pass up a head coaching gig because the team owner has some weird backroom voodoo going on might make sense on the surface, but it’s ultimately preposterous.

The average NFL head coach makes roughly TEN TIMES what a coordinator makes. If your boss came to you today and said, “Hey, we’re going to give you a promotion, and take your pay from $50,000 a year to $500,000 effective immediately. The only catch is you have to put up with our own resident “Grima Wormtongue,” odds are you wouldn’t even let them finish that last sentence before you said yes.

Now, a guy like Eric Bieniemy could believe he can wait this cycle out and get another shot next year—he does have it pretty good in Kansas City. However, history is littered with hot coaching candidates who never get a shot at the brass ring after spending a year or two on the interview circuit.

Even without Deshaun Watson, Houston is still a desirable gig for a rising coach. This is the NFL, which stands for “Not For Long”. If COVID has taught us anything, nothing in life is certain.

Is the Texans gig really so bad that EVERYONE would turn their nose up a tenfold pay increase, the high profile of being one of only thirty-two men to coach at the pinnacle of pro sports, and the chance to be the guy who puts out the dumpster fire and turns Houston into a winning franchise? Maybe that’s true for a few, but it’s hard to believe that net covers all the candidates. If that were the case, the Detroit Lions would NEVER hire a head coach. If that was the case, Tim Kelly would be the favorite to be the next Texans head coach.

That brings us to the next theory:

Nick Caserio is using patience and good judgement in getting the right candidate.

With Bill O’Brien’s management casting the Texans into the butt end of all the “trade away the franchise for a handful of magic beans” jokes, it could be candidates are coming in swinging for the fences with their demands. Rumor had it Bieniemy was asking for some roster control. Maybe other desirable candidates asked for even more.

Or, it could be candidates are asking for the removal of Jack Easterby. In the end, Caserio is a sharp mind, with two decades of team-building in New England under his belt. He deserves the full confidence of the fan base that he’ll get the best man for the job. While Caserio has never led a head coaching search, he worked under arguably the best head coach in history hiring all sorts of other coaches - if anyone knows what to look for, it’s Caserio.

What do you think? Why haven’t the Texans come to terms with a new head coach yet? Is it Easterby? Watson? All of it combined? Or is Caserio all about due diligence?