Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien doesn’t exactly come across to most as an overly sentimental individual. Just look back at his summer on NFL Hard Knocks and his hard-nosed attitude to coaching overshadows any sense of emotion surrounding his character.
However, speaking to Adam Schefter of ESPN O’Brien admitted that losing the likes of charismatic team captains Tyrann Mathieu and Kareem Jackson was tough.
“I get pretty attached to the players, I really enjoy coaching those guys,” admitted O’Brien. “You have a lot of great moments in the locker room and in the meeting rooms and out on the practice field and obviously on the games that we won, so it’s always tough but that’s part of pro football.”
In the case of safety Mathieu, the Texans were essentially outbid by the Kansas City Chiefs who in the process made themselves that little bit tougher a roadblock between Houston and a potential Super Bowl.
Meanwhile in the case of veteran Jackson, according to the man himself, neither he nor his agent was approached at any point regarding a new deal.
While this comes as a surprise, especially when O’Brien’s comments on these two players contained the line, “so now you have to have — okay here’s plan A, we’re gonna do what we can to try to get these guys back if we don’t here’s where we’re gonna go.”
That line indicates an intention to keep them both. However, there were other factors involved, and O’Brien mentioned them.
Said O’Brien: “You try to look at where you’re at from a cap standpoint, what you can do, what you feel like the value of the player is relative to your team and then you just do the best job you can to make the best decision for the team and that’s what we’ve tried to do.”
Regardless of whether or not they did try to keep Jackson, both of these team leaders have left the Texans and the locker room will be a very different place come the 2019 season.
