Bill O’Brien believes he had accomplishments with the Houston Texans in his 100-game tenure from 2014-20, but there is one regret he will always have.
In O’Brien’s postmortem presser with the Houston media Monday night, the 51-year-old former coach told reporters that his biggest regret is not leading the Texans to a Super Bowl, which he says he told chairman and CEO Cal McNair when he was informed he would be fired.
“We couldn’t get over the hump last year, the year before and obviously early on this year,” O’Brien said. “It wasn’t from lack of effort. We did win four division championships here that we’re very proud of. We won four division championships in six years, so we did a lot of good things here, but we didn’t do enough.”
While O’Brien had quarterback Deshaun Watson healthy and under center for his last two division titles from 2018-19, O’Brien’s AFC South titles from 2015-16 might be even more impressive. The former New England Patriots offensive coordinator started six different quarterbacks in that span, including four in 2015 alone. The Texans finished 9-7 both years, good enough to claim the division with a wild-card playoff win at the end of the 2016 campaign.
“Again, most people would say we didn’t do quite enough to get to the championship that we wanted here, but we did a lot of great things here,” said O’Brien. “We won a lot of games. We won four AFC South division titles in six years and I think that’s a good accomplishment. It’s not good enough but we did a lot of good things here.”
O’Brien leaves the Texans as the career leader in winning percentage at .520 with a 52-48 record. His 0-4 start helped him edge Dom Capers for the second-fewest losses in club history. Gary Kubiak remains the franchise leader in wins with 61 and losses with 64.
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