Houston Texans Head Coaching News: Matt Eberflus Turns Down Interview With Texans

The Houston Texans have stuck to their guns. They hired a general manager. The search firm they hired gave them five GM candidates; instead, they hired the one man whose name wasn’t included, a former New England executive, the man Bill O’Brien and Jack Easterby thirsted over in 2019.

With Nick Caserio at the helm, making Deshaun Watson even more disgruntled with the way his employer does business, the Texans now look to hire a head coach. So far, the Texans interviewed Joe Brady, Marvin Lewis, and Jim Caldwell. Of those three, Brady is the only one likely to get a head coaching job this year; Lewis and Caldwell seem like Rooney Rule candidates at the moment.

The Texans recently put in a request to interview Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. He’s been the DC in Indianapolis since 2018, turning one of the worst defenses in the league into a good one, then an average one, and now a great one in 2020. Part of Indy’s success was the fact that no one knew how great Darius Leonard, Kenny Moore, Anthony Walker, and Pierre Desir (who was pretty good, not great) were in 2018, but Eberflus has done a great job creating a man-match cover defense that gets the most out of the Colts’ talent and correctly incorporates the spare parts. By trading for DeForest Buckner, Eberflus’ defense has really taken off this year.

Eberflus is one of the hot head coaching candidates this offseason. He is set to interview with the Jets and Chargers. While the Texans reached out to interview Eberflus, he turned them down. He doesn’t even want to interview with the Texans, much less want the job.

The only bright spot of the Texans job right now is Deshaun Watson. That’s it. The team has a terrible defense, and it’s bereft of talent, without the picks or salary cap space to improve it. The offensive line is still terrible despite investing $32 million of cap space into it this season, along with two first round picks and two second round picks. The skill players are aging and overpaid; the whole group needs to be retooled for next season. The Texans are coming off a 4-12 season. Oh, and there’s some strange creature under the bed who is actually running things with his forked tongue lapping Cal McNair’s ear.

As I said on BRR earlier this week, I think the Jets, Chargers, and Jaguars are more attractive jobs then Houston’s, based on talent and resources alone. When you factor in the current ownership and management issues, Eberflus may not be the first candidate to reject a chance to interview in Houston. Other coaches, like Eric Bienemy (if he’s even asked to interview) and Brian Daboll may not bother as well.

Remember: Every time you think we found the bottom as Texans fans, there’s always another layer underneath that exists.