Take The Texans Prediction Challenge

[barrett]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

Bad timing but Gary Kubiak seemed to have turned down some offers before he accepted his first head coaching gig. He didn't cite geography though. He just felt he wasn't ready although "coming home" to Texas certainly appealed to him when he took the Texans job.

O'Brien does make me nervous though. We've seen the track record of other former Patriot assistant coaches (Weis, Crennel, Haley, McDaniels, etc.) and while the Penn State job certainly had unique challenges, it's not like he was going 10-1 and winning BCS bowls.

It is hard to replicate a Tom Brady offense without Tom Brady. But I still like O'Brien. I think it comes down to if he can work with Rick Smith. Many of the NE guys like to go full Bellachik even if they haven't earned the credibility yet (McDaniels in Denver). Word has surfaced that O'Brien had issues with the AD at Penn St. I don't want a guy whose first order of business is to tear everything down in the name of getting "his guys". That leads to Watt getting traded for pennies on the dollar like McDaniels did with Marshall and Cutler. I'd rather have someone with the confidence to make these guys into "his guys" and then replace people based on football and not on who they owe their job to. If O'Brien can be flexible and work with other people, I think he certainly has the mind to be a good HC. McDaniels does for that matter if he'll learn from what happened in Denver and be flexible.