In his first six seasons as head coach of the Texans, Bill O’Brien led them to the playoffs four times. Then he was named the team’s general manager, made some highly questionable decisions, started his seventh season 0-4, and was fired.
Unsurprisingly, O’Brien regrets ever agreeing to take on the GM responsibilities.
“That was a tough time in Houston,” O’Brien told Adam Breneman. “We were a good team, we made some decisions relative to the organization to try to fill the GM role, we went after some guys, we couldn’t get them, at the end of the day we went a full year really without a GM . . . and then there was a year we just said, ‘We’ll make you the GM.’ In the end, that’s not who I am.”
O’Brien said he quickly learned that his strengths lie in coaching, not negotiating contracts or making trades.
“I didn’t really enjoy being the GM,” O’Brien said. “I didn’t enjoy negotiating contracts. In some respects, I lost relationships with some of the guys that I was coaching because I didn’t enjoy that. In my opinion, there’s very few guys in the history of football that can ever do that -- and they’re the greatest of the greats. I feel like I’m a good coach, I know how to coach, but those things I’m not great at. I can evaluate talent, I know how to evaluate talent, but I shouldn’t be negotiating contracts and things like that. So in the end, that was a mistake by me. I really wish I didn’t do that to be really honest with you.”
O’Brien is now the head coach at Boston College, where he hopes focusing solely on coaching, and not on contract negotiations or trades, brings him success.
