Ranking Rams McVay among NFL head coaches (27-21)

22nd-ranked Bill O’Brien, Houston Texans

Head Coaching Record: 52-44 (.542)

The Houston Texans are a 2019 playoff team. So why is the playoff team head coach Bill O’Brien ranked so low on this list? Call it distractions from the duties of being a head coach. Head coaches are paid to coach teams.  That means developing players, setting game plans, and winning games.  While he has managed to win games, he does so with the smallest margins of victory.

If the ranking was based on records only, O’Brien would rank higher.  But the man doesn’t know where to draw the line between the general manager and head coach roles, so we can’t either.  Does he win? Yes. But in the past 96 games, he outscored opponents by 23 points. That anomaly won’t last.  In fact, the tide may be turning already. The Texans led the Kansas City Chiefs 24-0  in the playoffs, only to watch powerlessly as the Chiefs came back to win 51-31. His good luck has held because the Texans play in a weak AFC South division.

Any other GM would be fired

The team traded away star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals without shopping him to other teams. Then the team traded for LA Rams WR Brandin Cooks with their second-round pick in a draft class loaded with wide receiver talent. The team acquired controversial running back David Johnson from the Arizona Cardinals in a year where the draft class was loaded with talented running backs.

Bill O’Brien is an enigma. Perhaps he is a savant, a man so blessed with insight and knowledge that he reasons in ways most of us cannot possibly comprehend? Or he may simply be a man blessed with good fortune? Perhaps he is a small man standing on the shoulders of giants? In any case, he doesn’t follow any logic. And if I can’t follow it, I can’t rank it any higher.