The Texans so far have seven candidates for offensive coordinator. In The Loop takes a look at them all and share their gut feelings on where the Texans might lean.
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00:00the way that we'll start this. Raise your hand if you haven't been interviewed for the Texans O.C.
00:03position. Who hasn't been interviewed? I haven't. They haven't gotten around to me yet. Yeah,
00:07we'll see though. But you have seven, seven names that you have had put down for interviews. A few
00:12names have jumped up recently. Obviously, Jeff Nixon is one of the earlier ones. Thad Lewis,
00:17sorry, let me make sure I get this right. Jeff C. at Syracuse in college. Thad Lewis,
00:24currently a quarterback coach in Tampa. Nick Kaley, the passing game coordinator and tight
00:29ends coach under Sean McVay in L.A. with the Rams. And interestingly enough, he just today,
00:37at least we're getting reporting, that he has pulled himself out of the search for offense
00:41coordinator with the New York Jets under Aaron Glenn. Bill Lazor, who was the special offensive
00:47assistant earlier with these Texans team just last year. He is probably the most tenured,
00:52definitely the most tenured when it comes to actually play calling. He's had three O.C. stints
00:56in the NFL where he's been some level of play caller, whether it's, you know,
01:00been taken away at various points has happened. Gerard Johnson, who was the quarterback coach here
01:05for the Texans. Great relationship with C.J. Stroud that we know of. Grant Udinski has now
01:11been added to this. And this is, he believe is the assistant quarterbacks coach with the Vikings. So,
01:16hey, Josh McAllen ties. But he is 29 years of age and he just turned 29. His birthday is in January
01:23this month. He is a very young guy, but like widely regarded as like really sharp. And so
01:30there's that one. We'll talk more about that. And then Brian Johnson, who is a Baytown boy,
01:35went to Lee out there in Baytown. Most recently he has been, oh, where did he end up in this cycle?
01:41I forgot where he ended up just recently, but I think a lot of people will know him from his time
01:46two seasons ago as the offensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles. And that was not a great
01:53season for them offensively. It was all right. The numbers were pretty solid. But I think when
01:56you talk about the Eagles offense in general, they definitely had a balance. It feels there is,
02:02there's a little bit of a tight. Texas might have a tight with this OC search that we're really
02:06circling in on. Yeah. Younger, certainly, you know, guys that have been sort of skyrocketing
02:12with their acumen and their play calling and their talent. But you asked earlier, you know,
02:17what do I think about this approach? I love this approach. I really do. I think what's going on
02:24here is you got, first of all, the most important thing, collaboration. This isn't a Cal and Hannah
02:30thing. It's not a Nick Casario thing. It's not a D'Amico thing. It's a collaborative thing. And
02:36you can see that from the candidates. Like let's say they had some interest in Chip Kelly, which
02:40doesn't seem to be the case. That would be more of a big picture. You got to go to the owners.
02:45Are you willing to pay $4 million, whatever? Then you have, you know, Bill Lazor and Gerard
02:50Johnson in-house, D'Amico Ryan's clearly, and in Bill Lazor's case, I would think, well, both of
02:57them, you know, Nick Casario as well. These are our guys. Let's see what they have to say. They
03:02have, you know, kind of better backgrounds, kind of whole backgrounds in terms of systems and stuff.
03:08You have Nick Kaley, you know, it's just a real collaboration. And the other thing I like a lot
03:13about it is they're only going to hire one, as we know, but they're getting... One would hope.
03:19Just like we got the triple offense coordinator. You know what we're going to do? I got an idea.
03:23Let's go with two. No, they're only going to hire one. But what's going to happen is they've got
03:27information on all these young guys. You know, if this, if they ever need a, you know, a quarterback's
03:33coach, let's say Udinski, who has... If he happens to be out there or something. Well, even now,
03:39like, let's say the coordinator to bring in. They, you know, D'Amico might say, have you ever
03:45worked with this guy? What do you know about this guy? We hear nothing but great things.
03:48He's never had a full-time position job in the NFL. He's been an assistant quarterbacks coach
03:54and assistant tight ends. I think a special assistant to the head coach when he started.
03:59This would be like, hey, get a promotion, be the quarterback's coach for X, Y, or Z, you know,
04:05offensive coordinator. Same thing with some of these other guys who might be able to fit in.
04:10And maybe if you have the success that you think you're going to have, you already have a file on
04:15guys that you might circle back to next time. Yeah, especially, yeah, because that's also part
04:19of it is if you get somebody who is truly up and coming, you might end up in the place that you
04:24thought you were with Bobby Slowick a year ago where, oh, wow, we are losing our coordinator
04:27one year into having our coordinator. We need to go back into this space. I do like the idea
04:32that you're putting forward that maybe they're doing like the whole offensive staff searches
04:37right now. They're kicking the tires. I also had a moment of thought, and I'm going to be honest,
04:43I don't have a lot of love for the companies that do this because it feels a little skeevy.
04:47And so I feel bad trying to put this on the Texans, but it's just something that came to
04:50mind. And so I will say, and I'll allow you to make the judgment, dear listener,
04:54are they doing the thing where they have everybody coming with the binder? What would you do?
04:58Huh, that's an interesting plan. All right, we'll call you. We're just like,
05:01let's write that down. Yeah, absolutely. Maybe we implement some of that. That's part of the
05:04information you're getting. I don't mind it because it's a little bit like underhanded,
05:10maybe is the best way to put it. So if there was a hypothetical project coming up for this company,
05:14how would you answer this? Huh? Yes. And then take the notes and then go and implement.
05:21I like this, you know, the most upstanding thing to do, but it works and it's smart to do. And
05:27then there's these connections, as I mentioned, you know, about, uh, there's a lot of Chip Kelly.
05:32I didn't mention that there's a lot of Chip Kelly connections with some of these guys.
05:36Maybe they don't necessarily have a chance at Chip or he's withdrawn his name as Aaron Wilson has
05:40said. Uh, but they like kind of some of the concepts, you know, that, that Chip Kelly might
05:45do. There's a, you know, Nick Kaley is very much a direct line to Nick Casario. You know,
05:51maybe that's maybe Casario is like loves Nick Kaley. He's worked at his work. He spent a lot
05:55of time in that Patriot system. Yeah. And maybe that's where it's not going to happen. If D'Amico
06:01doesn't sign off on it, you know, even though he might be a Nick Casario guy. And then there's the
06:06Grant Udinski, who we talked about. You say a Josh McCown guy, he worked with Gerard Johnson
06:12in Minnesota. Yeah. So there's all kinds of little things that they're benefiting from here in terms
06:17of like the information they're getting, the potential hires they might make the potential
06:22hires they might make with this hire, with this offensive coordinator. Yeah. Well, I was really
06:27interested because when Brian Johnson's name came up yesterday, I was like, I imagine that there
06:30might be an, a lack of a appeal for him specifically because he has been, um, he has been a high
06:38profile name in that he was with the Eagles a couple of years ago. And when he was with the
06:43Eagles, it did not seem to go particularly great, uh, as, as a coordinator, the, you know, the
06:48passing game was fine. Like obviously working under Sirianni, but I immediately, what came to
06:53mind was the, you know, the ESPN wrote a big piece, I believe the beginning of this past
07:01football season, Jake Hurts, Nick Sirianni were trying to bridge the gap that they had previously
07:05in a detailed that previous year. And the seeming, uh, the seemingly, um, like the, the chasm that
07:11seemed to be there between them. I realized actually, that's one of the issues or one of
07:16the places where I was like, yo, I have questions on Nick Sirianni as a coach, because it seemed
07:21like Nick Sirianni, obviously after working with Steichen, you had, he had some and Steichen leaves
07:25and Jonathan Gandalese, and they need to get some new coordinators. One of those coordinators was
07:29Brian Johnson and Brian Johnson was an internal hire. He was previously the quarterback coach.
07:32And so similarly, like with Gerard Johnson, with, uh, CJ Stroud, he had a good relationship
07:37with Jalen Hurts. In fact, Brian Johnson, as I mentioned, he went to lead just like, uh,
07:41Jalen Hurts did, and like Hurts' pops who coached at Hurts, uh, at, uh, Lee rather.
07:46They had a closeness. They had a seeming, they were in one accord in some ways. And Nick Sirianni
07:51wanted his, he did not want Brian Johnson to really put his full fingerprints. He was on some,
07:56if it's, if it's not broken, don't fix it type of thing. So I wonder how much of Brian Johnson's
08:02ideas of offense you got in that circumstance, because Nick Sirianni wanted that. And there was
08:06reporting to that, to the, not just that there was, you know, it was Nick Sirianni's offense,
08:11but that he would actively overrule the play caller in Brian Johnson at various points.
08:16And that created, that was part of what created a lot of discord between, uh, the quarterback,
08:21Jalen Hurts, who did not get a lot of input and Nick Sirianni who really wanted to have
08:25a grasp on the entirety of the offense. And also like, does that sound familiar?
08:30It does sound a little familiar as I started laying it out. But I do wonder if that,
08:34if that means that Brian Johnson has more in there, that's not going to be indicative of what
08:38a lot of people think of when they think of his tenure. I think that's a great point. And I think
08:43it applies to, to a lot of people here. Uh, you know, and that's why, and that's why these
08:48interviews, I like, I like the process. I like that. They're kicking the tires on so many different
08:51guys, you know, D'Amico's probably sat or sitting, uh, ahead of, of Brian Johnson saying, all right,
08:56tell me, you can tell me how you would do it if you were in charge. Uh, you know, same thing with
09:02Bill Lazer, same thing with, uh, with Gerard Johnson, because neither of those guys was going
09:07to completely, you know, circumvent, uh, or stab Bobby Slowick in the back and say, Hey, this guy
09:13is inflexible or whatever. So I think that's, that's a big part of what this interview process
09:18is. Right. Right. You're in charge now. You, you have the final call because D'Amico is going to
09:23turn the offense over to this coordinator. That's right. You know, he'll pop his head in there,
09:28but he's going to turn it over. So, so you're in charge. You didn't have autonomy or you weren't
09:32heard in, in, uh, Philadelphia. You didn't have autonomy here, Bill Lazer and Gerard Johnson.
09:37You know, you, you weren't really, uh, going to rock the boat, so to speak with Bobby Slowick.
09:42What would you do if you're the last guy? I think that's important. Let me ask you this.
09:48If you had to pick today, who is it? How are you going to ask the question? I was about to ask you,
09:51you're just going to flip the question on me. What a jerk. All right. So I kind of want to
09:56drill down into this because I pick your guy. I realized, well, not necessarily your guy,
10:01pick who you think it's going to be. Oh, I can't tell you who I think it's going to be. I don't
10:04know. Like, I don't know that I have a good, I'm just now getting a grasp on what it feels like
10:07they are looking for. Uh, cause you talked about the idea of turning the offense over.
10:12There's only one guy here. Maybe you can go for two that feel like they bring the experienced guy.
10:17You know, the guy who has a whole bunch of experience and has a lot of wall to this position.
10:23And that's Bill Lazer. But I mean, when you look at the large group, he gets probably a look
10:28because he's been internal and that type of thing. It looks like they want to go younger.
10:32It looks like they want to go with like somebody that's brings fresh and new ideas. So you have
10:35Bill Lazer who has been, you know, who's had a lot of time, um, in the NFL. I believe he's has
10:41a what? 20, sorry. Uh, 29 years in coaching nine years as an OC between the NFL and college
10:48football. And then Jeff, Jeff Nixon is the other one who's had 27 years and then two years as a
10:54co-office coordinator at the college level. Those are the only guys that are coming through with
10:58the level of, I think, experience that somewhat, uh, in that level. Then I think that there's a
11:03level of peel with Gerard Johnson already having that one understanding of where you've been to
11:08where you want to go that Ridge, like immediately being able to hit and jump in. I think Brian
11:12Johnson bringing him in has made is, has really piqued my interest. Part of what I said there.
11:17And I mean, he has a little bit of a local connection, obviously, uh, not that that would
11:21mean a whole bunch in what we're talking about here, but I kind of like him. I think that he
11:26has some really cool, um, opportunities and he also has like a tie to like Cliff Kingsbury as
11:31well in the offense that he's had. Um, if you, if you have any level of appeal to what, what
11:36Washington did this year, but I don't know, it feels like Gerard Johnson is still pretty well
11:42situated or, I mean, Nick Caley is also one of those ones that if you wanted to keep something
11:46some somewhat similar, right. With, uh, seeing how kind of Sean McVay has bridged some of these
11:50things, but also, uh, getting that new England Patriots type, those guys feel like the leaders
11:55in my mind. And honestly, it seems like they might go internal with Gerard right now.
12:03I was kind of leaning towards Gerard, but I'm honestly, I, I really have no clue. If I had to
12:09put money on somebody, I will probably put money on Gerard. I would put money on Gerard or Nick
12:16Caley. Uh, I think Caley is probably one of those that certainly has that, you know, that,
12:23that experience with, uh, Nick Casario, but I think he's also beyond that. He's kind of spread
12:28his own wings and done his own thing. The other thing is I'm not sure how much they want to change
12:32with the offense, right? Because it seemed like they find what the way to, I mean, I know they
12:37wouldn't find what the way they want blocking schemes change. They like other looks. Yeah.
12:41They like the offense, but it seemed like maybe they want somebody to run it a little differently.
12:46So I don't know if they want to bring somebody from the outside to kind of
12:50change the whole offense, or maybe Gerard can do something different than Bobby Slowick or
12:56Bill Lazor could do something different than what they did. But I mean, one thing you won't be able
13:02to say is that they were not thorough in this. This is a pretty wide group and it feels like
13:06every day we're getting more people that they've interviewed and talked to. But again, a lot of
13:10them relatively young, not that they don't have experience that, you know, on certain levels,
13:13but at the highest level, like being a coordinator, at least having those particular decisions,
13:17those guys haven't been in, but you're looking at guys that fit all sorts of different and have
13:21had different mentors in the coaching game that really do run the gamut of various different
13:27offenses. So like as much as young and fresh seems to be a motif in here, it does not seem
13:33like there's a very specific, oh, we're going to have a Shanahan side type system in that way,
13:37which I find to be interesting because we've talked about going to also impact what you do
13:43personnel wise. And that makes me wonder, like, how are they approaching the Senior Bowl and
13:48Shrine Bowl? Like, see, that's why I think, yeah, and they can get by without knowing, you know,
13:54by the end of the Senior Bowl, which is pretty much over now. Sure. I mean, like this, again,
13:58we still got three months, like I said, till the draft ends. But they do need to find out sooner
14:03rather than later. I'll say by the time we're driving home Friday, we're going to know the
14:07OC. Okay. So you're putting that date on it. Yeah. I think they could. Yeah. I would like to
14:13have know it by that time. I was like, I think that they could take a little bit longer if they
14:16really wanted to. But when we're coming back, what's that like the seventh? So you mean next
14:20week? Next week, next week from today. We'll know. Somebody said Brian Johnson, the Texas
14:25will be worse than Schottenheimer to the Cowboys. I don't think that's the case. But I am that bad.
14:30I disagree. Right. Hammer to the Cowboys is bad. Yeah. And that's who there's. There's quite a bit
14:36of reporting there that apparently Jerry Jones wanted. It was talking to Pete Carroll. Pete
14:41Carroll had a lot of interest there. Yeah. And apparently in talking to Pete Carroll,
14:45Pete Carroll was really spoke glowingly about Schottenheimer. And apparently Schottenheimer
14:50said that he would only return and work under shot under work, at least as office coordinator
14:56if he could get play calling duties. And I guess that took Jerry to a place where he's like, we
15:00can't lose this man. And I guess that ultimately he played him. So he played him. So I don't know
15:06that I would make that akin to Brian. So Pete Carroll pretty much got him the job. Yeah. Although
15:11it seems like Pete Carroll wanted the job for himself. So I have no idea how that actually
15:14works. But that's that's the Cowboys up there. You're not operate. You actually how you're
15:18actually talking to a whole bunch of people.