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Once upon a time, it seemed that Eric Bieniemy was destined to be the next head coach of your Houston Texans. But no, the Texans decided they weren’t interested in even talking to Bieniemy about their head coaching vacancy despite the fact that their franchise quarterback (and every other rational person) wanted them to do so. The Texans chose to embrace the novel strategy of purposefully alienating their superstar talent, thus leaving Deshaun Watson questioning whether he wanted to remain a Texan.
Fortunately, in the face of all the blunders the Texans have committed, two things have happened. First and foremost, Bieniemy has not accepted (and may not have been offered) another head coaching gig yet. Secondly, Nick Caserio restarted Houston’s head coaching search and requested permission to interview Bieniemy. There was fear that Bieniemy wouldn’t even want to talk with the Texans and/or that the delayed timing of the request could keep the Texans from talking with Bieniemy until after the Super Bowl, but this morning we learned that the Texans will in fact conduct a virtual interview with the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator today.
The #Texans are set to do a virtual interview with #Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy today, source said. Thanks to the NFL and KC allowing it, Houston doesn’t have to wait until after the playoffs.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 18, 2021
This is good on several levels. Bieniemy is at least amenable to talking with the Texans about the job, which means it’s feasible that he might accept the job if it was offered, especially if he doesn’t feel good about the remaining coaching vacancies around the league. It also means the Texans, as they should have all along, will finally meet with a candidate whom their generational quarterback suggested. There are plenty of reasons for Texans fans to get excited about the possible hire of Bieniemy, but the biggest one right now is that it may well be the best and easiest way to make Deshaun Watson happy again.
Yes, yes, get rid of Jack Easterby, but let’s focus elsewhere for the moment. Talk with Bieniemy. Keep Deshaun in the loop. Let’s try to fix this thing before it goes any further off the rails.