Tim Kelly has been working under Bill O’Brien for nine years, ever since he was a graduate assistant at Penn State.
The former Eastern Illinois product followed O’Brien to the Houston Texans in 2014 when O’Brien was hired to coach the AFC South club. Kelly rose through the ranks as an offensive assistant, a tight ends coach, and enters his second season as offensive coordinator.
No one on the Texans’ coaching staff has worked with O’Brien longer, and Kelly knows what O’Brien’s best skill is.
“His ability to relate to players and his ability to get a feel for the room, get a feel for the locker room, is something that is to me, it’s the best that I’ve been around,” Kelly told reporters on Aug. 5. “It’s something that, again, trying to get a feel for the people that you’re working closely with is a skill that I can’t stress that enough how important that is in order to know which buttons to push in order to get the most out of the people that you’re responsible for. Being able to learn from him in that area has been great.”
Kelly earned O’Brien’s trust to gain the play-calling duties in 2020. For the first time since 2015-16, someone other than O’Brien will be calling the plays.
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