Houston Texans Coaching News: Not Interested In Eric Bieniemy?

Once Cal McNair finally fired Bill O’Brien, Houston Texans fandom felt awash with new found hope for the future. Maybe the Don Quixote-esque pursuit of “The Patriots Way” was finally over. Maybe.

In came a variety of candidates for the open general manager and head coaching positions. One name continually rose up as a no-brainer for the head coach position: Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.

The former running back, turned Minnesota Vikings running back’s coach, was greatly responsible for helping Adrian Peterson overcome his plague of fumble-itis, among other things, before moving from the Vikings to the Chiefs, where he’s been instrumental in the rise of Super Bowl MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Bringing Bieniemy to Houston to lead an offense featuring one of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL made too much sense.

The Texans, however, don’t appear to share that notion. They don’t even appear to be interested in interviewing Eric Bieniemy.

Amidst all this, the Texans interviewed several candidates for the open GM role, including Pittsburgh Steelers VP Omar Khan, ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, and a few others. Of course, the Texans requested also permission to interview New England Patriots VP Nick Caserio, the man they comically chased for the job a year and a half ago.

Little did we know, the fix was in. Caserio is now the Houston Texans general manager, complete with a fat paycheck that will see him pocket roughly $6 mil a year for the next aiz years. Not too shabby for a guy who was a shoe-in for the role despite never working as a GM in the NFL before.

Anyone who knows anything about Texans ownership knows that they are hopelessly infatuated with the Patriots and will stop at nothing to re-create that culture in H-Town. Which means teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs, arguably the best in the current AFC, have nothing to offer the Texans, even in a copycat league. Why bother emulating the winners when you can live as a Robert Kraft wannabe? With all that, it came as no surprise when this bomb dropped shortly after the Caserio hiring:

Since Bieniemy has no direct connection to the New England Patriots, why would Houston bother to interview him? Who cares if Deshaun Watson wants him as the head coach, right?

This could very well mean the Texans’ true head coaching candidate pool is contained within the guardrails of ‘men who have collected paychecks from Robert Kraft.’ Following that logic, it sure seems like the Texans will hire someone who worked with the Patriots as their next head coach. A quick rundown of possibilities:

• Josh McDaniels - current Patriots offensive coordinator. Long rumored to be the guy to come to Houston in if Nick Caserio was hired. McDaniels, Caserio, and Jack Easterby were together for a time in Foxboro.
• Brian Daboll - current Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator. The former Patriots wide receiver and tight ends coach clearly has a connection to the Easterby/Caserio train.
• Matt Patricia - the former New England defensive coordinator is currently unemployed after being let go as the Detroit Lions head coach.
• Romeo Crennel - current interim Texans head coach. The former Patriots Super Bowl winning defensive coordinator is already in the building. Crennel is very likable, gets along great with players and staff, and would bring continuity to the team despite his lack of a winning record as the HC.

Sure, there are other great candidates out there, but if Houston can’t be bothered to even interview Bieniemy, they’ve shown The Jack Easterby Show is in full swing with nepotism ruling the day. Hopefully, whichever former Patriot gets to be the coach of the Houston Texans fares better than the last former Patriot the McNairs hired as their head coach. Hopefully, Nick Caserio makes sure Easterby can’t run off any more All-World talent (see Jadeveon Clowney, DeAndre Hopkins) and actually attracts the right players to surround Deshaun Watson and J.J. Watt to field a winning roster once again.