One can argue about how attractive the Houston Texans’ coaching job has been the past two seasons. No one can argue that the coaches who have taken it haven’t lasted long.
Whether it is the fault of general manager Nick Caserio, the ownership led by chairman and CEO Cal McNair, or even the coaches themselves in David Culley (2021) and Lovie Smith (2022), the reality is any candidate who interviews for the job is going to be anxious they could get canned at the end of their first year.
Caserio met with the media Jan. 9 and discussed how the Texans plan to address the issue of unrealized longevity for Texans coaches the past two seasons.
“Yeah, when we get in these interviews, the only way to handle things is to be honest and open and respect their position, and solicit their feedback, and get their opinion, and get their comfort level with what we’re doing,” said Caserio. “This is an opportunity for whoever we speak with. Say there’s a good chance, we’ve never worked together, haven’t necessarily had a working relationship or a history with them, so there’s going to be — have to be an open dialogue. There’s going to have to be open communication.”
Caserio considers the discussions about the fact the organization has fired two coaches in the past two years to be part of the “difficult conversations” portion of the interviews.
Said Caserio: “You know, quite frankly, there’s going to be some tough conversations that we may need to have. The only way to do it is to be forthright, is to be honest, to communicate back and forth, to get a comfort level with one another, try to figure out where the gaps may exist, try to figure out what are some of the things we think we need to do better, that I need to do better, and that’s the only way we’re going to make productive progress.”
The last team to hire a third coach in as many seasons was the San Francisco 49ers. After firing Jim Tomsula (2015) and Chip Kelly (2016), San Francisco hired Kyle Shanahan — albeit that was the call of a new general manager, John Lynch.
