Bill O’Brien rose from head coach to football czar in Houston, but he couldn’t survive an 0-4 start to the 2020 season.
The Houston Texans have fired Bill O’Brien, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported.
The development was first reported by John McClain of the Houston Chronicle.
Associate head coach Romeo Crennel will take over as interim head coach. The 73-year-old Crennel has previously served as head coach in Cleveland and Kansas City.
O’Brien and Jack Easterby, Houston’s executive vice president of football operations, did not see eye-to-eye recently, leading to O’Brien’s firing, Rapoport added. Easterby had previously arrived to evaluate the organization and fired former general manager Brian Gaine, preceding O’Brien’s eventual promotion to GM.
O’Brien’s Texans had an eventful offseason, in which the coach and GM controversially traded away Houston’s star receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, in an effort to gain back lost draft capital and a reclamation project in running back David Johnson. It hasn’t gone well, with Houston currently ranking last in the NFL in rushing yards per game and failing to score more than 23 points in any of its first four games.
The Texans fought their way through an unenviable first two weeks that included meetings with the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens, who finished 14-2 in 2019. Houston went on to lose a close contest against Pittsburgh in Week 3 before falling flat in Week 4 against Minnesota.
The combined effort proved to be the final straw for Texans owner Cal McNair, who terminated O’Brien just one quarter through the season and the team off to its worst start since 2008. O’Brien departs Houston with a career regular-season record of 52-48, four AFC South titles and just one losing season (2017) in his tenure.
