HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610) -- Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson said he still has confidence in first-year play caller Tim Kelly after the firing of head coach Bill O’Brien.
There had been a lot made of O’Brien reclaiming play-calling duties from offensive coordinator Kelly in Week 4, though Watson said after the game he did not see much difference.
With O’Brien fired Monday, that leaves Kelly and Watson on their own to call plays without O’Brien’s oversight.
Interim head coach Romeo Crennel made it clear that the game plan and play calls will go through him. But given Watson’s confidence and belief in Kelly, expect the offense to look how the two of them want it to.
“I believe in Tim Kelly and what he has potential to do and what he’s been doing,” Watson said Wednesday, speaking publicly for the first time since O’Brien was fired Monday. “We’re all just going to come together and continue to grow. This is his first year as a play-caller so there’s growing pains to that, for me to be on the same page with him. We’re learning as we go and we’ve got to be able to learn on the fly and adjust and try to have that success.”
Kelly is in his second year as the offensive coordinator, but his first as the play-caller. After three weeks of inconsistency on offense, O’Brien reclaimed play-calling duties in the Texans’ 31-23 loss to the Vikings at NRG Stadium.
Kelly, 34, worked his way up under O’Brien’s tutelage, first as a graduate assistant at Penn State then as a quality control and assistant with the Texans.
Watson, when asked whether he’d been limited in his time with O’Brien, he said “not necessarily.”
Yet the constant change and instability under O’Brien’s tenure brought the Texans to this moment.
Watson wants stability. Just since the Texans drafted him in 2017, they have been through three different general managers, traded a franchise cornerstone and his close friend DeAndre Hopkins, and now will look for his second head coach.
“Not just for me, but just for anybody. If you have a lot of change and a lot of people that’s not on the same page, regardless of how good your team is or how good your organization is supposed to be, it’s not going to be where it needs to be and there’s going to be a lot of inconsistency. That’s the thing that we’re going through right now and sometimes it takes a little time. But you’ve got to have that solid foundation before you can pile on things you want to pile on.
“That foundation, or whatever you believe in or whatever you stand on, has to be solid. Once that’s solid, then you can pile and build what you want to build. That’s what we’re trying to figure out right now. We’re trying to figure out that solid foundation for this organization, for this team. For my career, for 99 (J.J. Watt’s) career, for all of the players’ in that locker room career.”