The Houston Texans promoted tight ends coach Tim Kelly to the role of offensive coordinator on Feb. 2, and coach Bill O’Brien is in full endorsement of the personnel move.
O’Brien joined Texans Radio on Sports Radio 610 Tuesday to talk about Kelly’s increased role among the other changes taking place throughout the coaching staff.
“We believe this is an excellent change,” said O’Brien. “Something that Tim Kelly has earned. One of the philosophies that we have here is we really like to try to hire young coaches and teach them on one side of the ball or maybe both sides of the ball.”
Kelly joined the Texans in 2014 as an offensive quality control coach when Houston hired O’Brien to be the club’s third ever full time coach. Previously, Kelly spent time with O’Brien at Penn State where O’Brien was the coach and Kelly a graduate assistant who was actually working on the defensive side of the ball.
O’Brien believes that Kelly has a firm understanding and grasp of the Texans’ offensive philosophy.
Said O’Brien: “Timmy has an excellent knowledge of our offense, all aspects of it, whether it’s the passing game, the running game. Timmy has an excellent knowledge of how we talk about defense from an offensive perspective because he started out on defense, so he has a great knowledge of coverages and fronts.”
Another aspect that went into play in giving Kelly an opportunity was the rapport he has with the players along with the coaching potential of the former defensive tackle from Eastern Illinois.
“We’re excited for him and we’re excited for our coaching staff to be able to promote Timmy,” said O’Brien.
