After just one season on the job, the Houston Texans have opted to relieve Brian Gaine of his duties as general manager.
The timing of this decision is extremely unusual, with training camp soon to start. April marked Gaine’s first draft with picks in the top 100 to use, and a large war chest with which to extend Jadeveon Clowney, among others, and sign free agents.
Nail in the coffin
And this is where we come to the likely reason why Gaine was let go. The Texans have been extremely cautious in free agency this year. Clowney remains unsigned, they lost safety Tyrann Mathieu after being outbid by the Kansas City Chiefs, and defensive back Kareem Jackson departed.
They also failed to land any of the top free agents/trade targets such as Trent Brown, Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, Matt Paradis, Adrian Amos and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, to name but a few. This came despite having among the largest salary cap room in the NFL and plenty of holes to fill on the roster.
Strange timing puts Houston in poor situation
Typically, GMs are fired shortly after a poor season, so dropping Gaine after he has already constructed the team for the year comes across as a gut decision out of irritation. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing if it pans out and he really was having that poor of an influence on this team, the fact that the top GM prospects from last season will mostly have been hired months ago leaves Houston in a difficult situation.
Any potential targets remaining will walk into a team with plenty of money but very few free agents to target. They would inherit somebody else’s team with a large number of players on one-year deals that will need to be renegotiated in a year’s time, as well as bigger names, such as Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller, who are all set for extensions in the next few years.
However, it may strike some as a good situation to walk into as it is far from a rebuilding project. The new GM would have plenty of talented elite players and a solid coaching staff to work with on a team coming off a division title.
Bill O’Brien show
One key takeaway from this was put perfectly by Jake Asman, who tweeted: “If there was any doubt that Bill O’Brien is running the show, this answers that. He helped hire Gaine and now he keeps his job as another GM is going out the door.”
And the fact is, he is absolutely right. O’Brien has had his pick of the coaches since day one; he got a contract extension that he wanted despite what many would argue were subpar results for this team; as mentioned, he chose the replacement for Rick Smith; and chances are he will have the final say in who replaces Gaine.
But there can be no denying that this is O’Brien’s team now, not the general manager’s. If you don’t bring in who O’Brien wants, then you will likely be shown the door before long.
Perhaps we will see the Texans go down the same route as the New York Jets, who have allowed their head coach to take over as GM until a replacement is brought in. While this seems unlikely with senior vice president of football administration Chris Olsen already named as the person to hold down the fort for the moment down in Houston, with O’Brien’s vice grip on this franchise, can anything be ruled out?
