During the final offseason doldrums before training camp in July 2019, NFL.com writer Elliot Harrison released his coaches power rankings. Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien was No. 19, which was the lowest among any of the playoff-winning coaches on the list. Harrison provided a thought-out explanation:
Bill O’Brien is a good coach. How good of a coach is he? Well, his detractors will say he’s good enough to get ya beat in the playoffs. Then again, O’Brien has helped the Texans post a winning season in four out of his five years with the team. That’s after taking over a squad that went 2-14 the year before he got there. The complaints about O’Brien often center around an inconsistent offense and his in-game management. Of course, much of a head coach’s job performance centers around things fans don’t see. That includes the culture around the team from Monday through Saturday, communication with the players, and the ability to keep a team focused. Without the latter, there is no way Houston wins over 40 games in five years. The struggle for O’Brien this season will be to squeeze better play out of the offensive line, as well as get Deshaun Watson to avoid creating his own pressure by holding the ball for too long.
Three weeks into the 2019 season, there were eight coaches better than O’Brien on the list who had worse records than the Texans. Now, with wild-card weekend in the books, there are 14 coaches who missed the playoffs, got bounced from the playoffs, or were no longer employed by their original team by the end of the season. Here are the 14 coaches:
1. doug marrone
There was a rumor heading into Week 17 that the Jacksonville Jaguars could fire Marrone and go in a different direction after the club fired Tom Coughlin as their executive vice president of football operations. Marrone did the best he could with free agent quarterback Nick Foles going down in Week 1 with a collarbone injury and riding Minshew Mania with rookie sixth-rounder Gardner Minshew as far as it could take the Jaguars. Jacksonville finished 6-10 and it appears Marrone will be back in 2020.
Fun fact: since Jacksonville won the AFC South in 2017, O’Brien has beaten Marrone four straight times.