HEADLINES

Cal McNair

Extra Points: Watson, Tagovailoa, Prescott

November 22nd, 2020 at 10:13pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Houston Texans are at a crossroads as an organization. After surprisingly firing Bill O’Brien toward the beginning of the year they were left without a head coach and GM. Romeo Crennel and Jack Easterby have taken over those roles on an interim basis, but the franchise is currently in a bit of a rut and lacking direction. They’re also without a lot of draft picks, including their first-rounder next April, due to trades O’Brien made. As they look to dig themselves out of that mess, owner Cal McNair is apparently leaving no stone unturned.

McNair recently had dinner with quarterback Deshaun Watson, the one thing the team has going for them at the moment, and he picked his brain about what he’d like to see moving forward, McNair told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. Schefter writes that “McNair wanted to hear Watson’s thoughts and opinions on who should be the next head coach.” Assuming Watson gets legit input, it would be relatively safe to assume the Texans will target an offensive mind. Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy is sure to be a hot name, although there are plenty of other offensive minds as well.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • Tua Tagovailoa‘s honeymoon as the Dolphins’ quarterback came to an end Sunday in a loss to the Broncos. Tagovailoa struggled mightily during the defeat, and was pulled for Ryan Fitzpatrick. Speaking after the game, head coach Brian Flores confirmed Tagovailoa did not have an injury and was benched for performance. That being said, Flores also wasted no time declaring that his rookie will be his starter next week, meaning we’ll have to wait again for our first dose of Fitzmagic. Tagovailoa was 11/20 for only 83 yards before getting pulled during the loss, which snapped Miami’s five-game winning streak. He’ll have a get-right spot against the Jets next week.
  • Fortunately, we’ve got another positive update to pass along on Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. Appearing on the radio Friday, team EVP Stephen Jones said he’s been getting “amazing reports” from doctors on Prescott’s status, via Jon Machota of The Athletic. “Shouldn’t come as any surprise,” Jones said. “He does everything to the nines and the 10s and he just does it the very best. He’s been so diligent in his rehab and that shouldn’t surprise anybody. They said if anything he’s ahead of schedule and rolling. That should come as no surprise. So we expect him to have a full recovery.” Jones also reiterated that Prescott avoided any infections, which can sometimes occur with compound fractures. Everything continues to look good for Prescott’s chances of being ready for Week 1 of 2021.
  • Let’s wrap things up with some punter news. Veteran specialist Jon Ryan has been working out and has drawn interest from teams recently, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network tweets. Ryan is 38 now but clearly has no plans of hanging up his cleats. Pelissero notes he led the CFL in gross punting average last season. He most notably spent ten years as the Seahawks’ punter from 2008-17.

Texans’ CEO: Jack Easterby Won’t Be GM

November 19th, 2020 at 1:05pm CST by Zachary Links

The Texans will not appoint Jack Easterby as their next GM. That’s what team president Jamey Rootes told reporters earlier this week, and that was hammered home on Thursday by team CEO Cal McNair.

“Let me reiterate: Jack will not be our general manager,” McNair said when asked about the club’s Executive Vice President. “But, he will have a significant role in helping shape our future here within the Texans…(Easterby) is going to be an incredibly valuable part of our franchise moving forward as he works with our next general manager and head coach. I want to build something that our fans, players and staff are proud of. It’s okay to be under construction right now.”

The Texans kicked off their construction in earnest earlier this year by firing head coach/GM Bill O’Brien. The process has been a trying one for Texans fans, who watched running back David Johnson go on IR while DeAndre Hopkins added an all-timer to his highlight reel for the Cardinals. On the other side of the ball, cornerback Gareon Conley has been ruled out, leaving the Texans paper thin in the secondary. On the plus side, interim head coach Romeo Crennel has them in the win column, which is more than O’Brien was able to do. The Texans will look for win No. 3 this week against the Patriots.

Latest On Texans’ GM, HC Search

October 11th, 2020 at 11:02am CST by Rory Parks

With Bill O’Brien gone, the Texans find themselves with an interim GM in Jack Easterby and an interim HC in Romeo Crennel. Earlier this week, team owner Cal McNair said that internal conversations as to how the team will permanently fill those roles had yet to begin, but it seems that has changed.

Per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, McNair has hired Jed Hughes, the vice chairman of the search firm Korn Ferry, to assist him. The club will reportedly wait until after the season to hire a new head coach and general manager, but obviously McNair wants to start the process as soon as possible. Interestingly, Hughes also played a key role in helping the Texans identify and hire O’Brien back in 2014.

According to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, Patriots exec Nick Caserio is once again under consideration for the Houston GM job. As many of our readers probably remember, the Texans made a play for Caserio in June 2019, only to back out when the Pats threatened to file tampering charges.

Caserio is widely considered to be a top GM candidate, and though he did sign a two-year extension with New England in February, La Canfora says that the new deal prohibits the Pats from interfering with Caserio’s pursuit of a GM job. JLC adds that McNair remains high on Caserio.

Meanwhile, Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, who has been a hot head coaching candidate in recent years, was one of the first names to surface in speculation after O’Brien’s dismissal. And La Canfora says Bieniemy has a fan in Texans QB Deshaun Watson, whose opinion and feedback will be valued by McNair. Indeed, Watson has already advocated for Bienemy, who may have several options but who will unlikely find an HC-needy team with a signal-caller as good as Watson.

McNair is said to be seeking a QB guru, so Patriots OC Josh McDaniels and Bills OC Brian Daboll will also be under consideration.

Texans Owner: Jack Easterby To Serve As Interim GM Only

October 8th, 2020 at 8:55am CST by Zachary Links

Jack Easterby is the Texans’ interim GM, but he won’t be the team’s Texans’ GM for the 2021 season, owner Cal McNair tells John McClain of the Houston Chronicle. McNair also confirmed that he won’t give his next head coach the GM title.

“We’ll search for a general manager first, find the right guy, and then we’ll hire the coach,” McNair said. “Jack’s agreed to be the interim general manager while we conduct our search. Once we find the right GM, Jack will return to his position as executive vice president of football operations.”

O’Brien was fired on Monday after the Texans got off to an 0-4 start. For now, Romeo Crennel is serving as the team’s interim head coach. McNair says that the team’s internal conversations to fill the HC and GM roles have yet to begin. The speculation, however, started immediately. Speculatively, some have suggested that Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, current defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney (Deshaun Watson’s former coach at Clemson) could be in the head coaching mix. For what it’s worth, Swinney says he’s not thinking about the Texans vacancy.

On the GM side, some wondered whether Easterby would wind up with the job, given his influence within the organization. Apparently, that won’t be happening — McNair says that Easterby will remain the club’s executive vice president of football operations, with another exec having final say over the roster.

Texans GM To Control Team Personnel, HC Bill O’Brien To Be On Search Committee

January 3rd, 2018 at 7:20pm CST by GregGoldstein

There’s new developments regarding the Texans quest to find a new general manager. The team’s owner, Bob McNair, told reporters today that the person they eventually hire will have control of personnel over current head coach Bill O’Brien, relays John McClain of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). However, McClain does note that O’Brien, along with team president Jamey Rootes, will be with McNair and Cal McNair as the four-man the team conducting the search.

Bob McNair (Vertical)

“The GM is going to have full authority over personnel, and he’ll report to Cal and me,” said the Texans owner. “That’s our message to potential GMs, We know what we want. We’ll pick somebody that Cal and I like, coach O’Brien likes and Jamey likes. We pretty much agree on what we’re looking for.” (via McClain on Twitter)

While the job should be sought after by many people across the league, McNair also stated that he doesn’t want the general manager to reshape front office, although he did say that he could allow for some potential new hires given who they ultimately agree to bring into the organization.

“He may have 1 or 2 key people he’s worked with, and he might want to bring them in,” said McNair. “That’s reasonable. It’s also reasonable to ask that person to work with the people we have this year and Cal what he thinks. We’re not going to have somebody come in and clean house.” (via McClain)

This is an interesting process for the Texans ownership group because executive vice president Rick Smith‘s situation is really up-in-the-air given that he will be home with his wife who is battling cancer. McNair does seem intent on waiting a year to feel out what Smith’s situation may look like in 2019.

“We don’t know what Rick might do,” said the owner. “That’s something we’ll discuss a year from now. The only concern is to take care of his family, and we’re not going beyond that.” (via McClain)

There’s already been some GM candidates speculated, including: Nick Caserio (Patriots), Brian Gaine (Bills) and Brian Gutekunst (Packers). Although, there should be more names that will arise in the next week or two. It’s expected to be a quick process and we now know that the new hire will have primary control on the roster entering the 2018 season.