Texans' 0-4 start costs O'Brien job
HOUSTON — The Houston Texans fired coach and general manager Bill O’Brien on Monday.
The firing comes a day after Sunday’s 31-23 loss to the Vikings dropped the Texans to 0-4 for the first time since 2008.
“In this business, it’s a bottom-line business and we weren’t able to get it to where we needed to get it,” O’Brien said.
After assuming the role of general manager in the offseason, O’Brien received almost universal criticism when he shipped superstar receiver DeAndre Hopkins to Arizona for running back David Johnson and draft picks.
Asked to reflect on some of his personnel decisions, O’Brien said he had no regrets.
“Every decision we made was always in the best interest of the team,” he said. “We had long conversations. We put a lot of research into them. There were things that happened within the walls of an organization that the outside public will really never know. And that’s just the way it is.”
The pressure on O’Brien only intensified as the Texans limped out to the terrible start with Johnson struggling as their running game was the worst in the NFL and with the defense allowing the most yards in the league.
O’Brien was in his seventh season in Houston where he compiled a 52-48 record. He won the AFC South four times in his tenure, including the past two years.
He came to Houston after spending 2012-13 as the coach at Penn State. The Texans job was his first NFL head coaching job.
