"Bill O’Brien has been a failure in Houston and yet all he seems to do is accumulate more power with every failure. It’s a magic act."
"Patriots players had a nickname for Bill O’Brien. They called him ‘The Teapot’ because he could not control his temper."
"Came into the league in 2002; did not win the AFC South until 2011"
"Bob McNair spent most of his early and middle age life as a failed businessman but got rich when he founded Cogen Technologies, which he sold to Enron in 1999."
"Bob McNair is unable to spot the fraudulent coach because he doesn’t have the moral compass to be able to do that."
"Bob McNair purchased that stock at it’s peak, immediately liquidated it and bought the Texans. Maybe Bob McNair just got lucky or his timing was that impeccable, immediately buys the Texans with that money."
"No one ever talks about it. The Texans arose from dirty money."
"As the higher ups in the organization were in great turmoil & transition, Bill O’Brien was the lone constant. That is how he became one of the three most powerful coaches in the NFL."
"Just like Enron was built on a bed of lies, so have the Texans. W/L records can lie. Division championships can lie. If you look further & put some context behind who the Texans really have been under O’Brien, they haven’t been good. He has coached teams with negative point differentials three of the last four years. Watson dragged his team on the back the last two years and those are the only two seasons of O’Brien’s six where they’ve had double digit wins. Last year, they went 10-6, won a playoff game, really the Bills lost the game, had a negative point differential, 19th in Football Outsider’s DVOA team efficiency, below average team, awful on defense, below average offensive line, poorly coached offensively but Watson led the league in game winning drives (5). They won a ton of close games. 9-3 in one score games. One score games are coin flips. Texans got a bunch of fortunate coin flips. They finish 10-6."
"If you peel back the surface on this team, it’s rotten to the core. Their best defensive player is JJ Watt. He finished 10th among edge rushers on PFF. … Mercilus outside the Top 65 Edge Rushers on PFF. Cunningham outside the Top 20 on PFF. Conley our 50th ranked corner on PlayerProfiler.com. They don’t have a Top 50 corner on their roster in today’s NFL?"
"Does Bill O’Brien give the Texans any room for optimism going forward? The answer is a definitive no. Watson does for long term optimism. It goes beyond O’Brien’s recent run of franchise crushing trades. His coaching acumen is one of the most worrying aspects that people don’t talk about because the focus is on how bad of a GM he is. Over the past four years, O’Brien has had one of the highest rates of calling run plays after 1st-and-10 incompletions. He loves to run the ball on 2nd and long, which inevitably leads to 3rd-and-longs and puts so much on Deshaun Watson. Warren Sharp pointed out in his 2019 football preview O’Brien loves to call run plays for RBs after long runs. The success rate is really low, 33%, averaging 3 YPC. In 2018, O’Brien ran the ball on first down in the first half of games at the highest rate in the league. At his core, O’Brien is a run-run-pass coach which is terribly embarrassingly outdated."
"When did O’Brien get unlimited power? (Gaine was fired) June 7th, 2019.
The first two trades he makes are for RBs. Duke Johnson for the 97th selection. Very surprising at the time. Gives him the ball fewer than 8 times per game. He trades for Carlos Hyde in the same month & gives him the ball a ton. That’s his new Benjarvis Green-Ellis. Had some nice runs but he’s a RB that puts limit on your offense because of how ineffective in the pass game. O’Brien loved feeding him the rock and not giving it to Duke Johnson who was more efficient.
In early September, they acquired Tunsil, Stills, two future 3rd day picks for two firsts and a second. This was a ton to pay for two players whose contracts are about to expire. Never seen a player with more leverage than Tunsil. He still needs a new contract. It was an incredible amount of compensation. It did not make their line good. It was still at best average and likely well below average.
On the same day as the Tunsil trade, so does the Clowney trade to Seattle. Mingo, Martin & 3rd round pick in exchange for Clowney. 3rd rounder became #91. They trade #91 to the Raiders for Gareon Conley. So they got Mingo, Martin & Conley for Clowney.
A lot of it can be tied to ego. A lot of it can be tied to thinking you’re better than you are. The Texans haven’t been very good. Only two seasons of double digit win seasons in six years under O’Brien. They weren’t very good last year. They got fortunate in one score games and the Bills melted down.
Carrying ego over the our next trade, the Hopkins trade. David Johnson, 40th pick, 2021 4th rounder in exchange for Hopkins & 2020 4th rounder. This was an absolute robbery for the Cardinals. … You’ll hear Hopkins wanted a raise or they couldn’t pay Clowney but when they take on David Johnson’s deal, there’s no credibility to those explanations. Hopkins was traded because he had a personality conflict with O’Brien and O’Brien couldn’t be the bigger man and say ‘Look, I’ll deal with this. I have a great player. We have a small window. My WR has the best rapport with his QB of any QB/WR in the game. I don’t want to tread in those waters but O’Brien’s ego is so big, he allowed the personality conflict to be bigger than the game."
"57 is the hotbed of where to pick in this draft. Cooks has 5 concussions. He’s owed $20M the next two years. Again this idea they’re making these deals because of the salary cap is nonsense. He’s now been traded by the Saints, Patriots & Rams. Not as bad as the Hopkins trade but you’re betting on a player with a terrifying injury history who is not cheap & not productive in a long time."
"This is a lot of trades, future assets to be given away for questionable present assets, many who are expensive."
"He is running the Texans very much like Jeffrey Skilling ran Enron."
"Texans in the 2020 draft, widely regarded as a great draft, have no first round pick and only three picks in the Top 170. In next year’s draft, Dolphins have the Texans 1st & 2nd rounder."
"You know in your heart the best thing for the Texans is any way it takes to get Bill O’Brien out of there."
"It makes the most sense to just try to go for it all this year but in your heart of hearts, if you’re a true Texans fan & thinking long term, in the best interest of the organization, you want them to go 4-12 and O’Brien to get fired. That’s what’s best for the organization."
"4-year plan? The Texans don’t even have a 4-day plan. It’s whatever Bill O’Brien thinks when he wakes up in the morning. If you’re a Texans fan, you want to win but when you closely examine the talent profile, I just don’t see it. The Colts & Titans are improving. The path for the Texans to be competitive is vanishing in front of their feet."