Getty Images
Texans currently have a mess on their hands. The best way to clean this up could involve hiring Jim Caldwell to serve as the team’s next coach.
There is a buzz in league circles that Caldwell may be the next coach in Houston.
Last month, Texans interviewed Caldwell, who previously trained the Colts and Lions, before hiring GM Nick Caserio. With the team in desperate need of a solution to quarterback Deshaun Watson’s now obvious and well-documented discontent, Caldwell may be the calming influence the team needs.
Would Caserio want Caldwell? Former Lions GM Bob Quinn, who worked with Caldwell in Detroit, fired Caldwell after a couple of 9-7 seasons. Some would say that Caldwell’s dismissal has become a matter of “when” and not “if” since Quinn got the job, given the reality that Quinn seemed determined to hire Matt Patricia to train the team.
Caldwell, 65, has a 62-50 record in the regular season and a 2-4 mark in the playoffs. He had no other interviews in the current cycle.
If Texans hired Caldwell in an effort to undo the damage done to the relationship with Deshaun Watson, why would they simply not interview and / or hire the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy? This approach appears to be too much capitulation for Watson, who recommended Bieniemy for the job.
However, it is possible that Watson crossed the Rubicon mentally in relation to his time in Houston. Even without Watson, however, Caldwell could be the right man at the right time to stabilize a team that has fallen into a state of dysfunction that the organization has never seen before.