Kansas City Chiefs: Ranking team’s 2020 opponents
By Cullen Jekel
4. Houston Texans
Despite his, uh, misgivings as a general manager, Bill O’Brien is quite the head coach. Of all of Belichick’s disciples, O’Brien’s the only one who wins, and he wins consistently.
Stepping into one of the ugliest situations the college sports world has ever encountered, O’Brien led the Penn State Nittany Lions to records of 8-4 (6-2) in 2012 and 7-5 (4-4) in 2013. He then left the collegiate level for the Houston Texans where he’s been the head coach for the last six years.
In that time, O’Brien’s Texans have accumulated an overall record of 52-44 while posting winnings seasons five of six times. Houston, though, is only 2-4 in the playoffs under O’Brien.
Much like the Kansas City Chiefs, the Houston Texans swung for the fences in the 2017 NFL Draft when they traded the No. 25 pick as well as their 2018 first round pick to the Cleveland Browns in order to move up to No. 12. With that pick, the Texans took Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson*, one of the most dynamic playmakers in the league.
*Minutes earlier, when the Chiefs traded with the Bills to move up from pick No. 27 to pick No. 10, I’d hoped they’d take Watson. While Watson is fun to watch, I’m glad I was wrong.
Having Watson at the helm has masked most–but not all–of O’Brien’s personnel bumbles. Houston’s offense won’t be as dynamic in 2020 without wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, whom O’Brien shipped to Arizona for an aging, oft-injured running back, David Johnson.
Still, with Watson at quarterback, the Texans aren’t a team to be taken lightly. They’re going to make a strong play to win the AFC South for the third straight year. I wouldn’t bet against them doing just that.