Bill O'Brien Will Return Next Season as Texans Head Coach

The fate of Houston Texans head coach Bill O'Brien was rumored to be up in the air as the team prepared to face the Oakland Raiders in the first round of the NFL playoffs Saturday. However, a Houston win has cemented his status with the team.

After the game, Texans owner Bob McNair said O'Brien will be back next season, adding that the reports of his possible firing if the team had lost were false, per Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports.

"I have a five-year contract," O'Brien added, per Jayson Braddock of SportsTalk 790. "I have two years left on my contract."

Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reported before that the game that there was a "real chance" O'Brien ends up coaching elsewhere next season either through trade or a mutual exit from Houston. Several teams seeking a new coach were reportedly waiting to see how the situation plays out while they conduct their search.

The 47-year-old Massachusetts native has accumulated a 27-21 record with three straight 9-7 seasons since taking over in Houston. It's the second consecutive year the team won the AFC South, but last year's playoff run ended immediately with a 30-0 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

He rose to prominence during his time as a New England Patriots staff member, beginning as an offensive assistant in 2007 and ending up their offensive coordinator in 2011. He'd previously worked at the collegiate level with Brown, Georgia Tech, Maryland and Duke, mostly with a focus on the offensive side of the ball.

Despite that background, Houston's offense has struggled under his guidance, ranking in the bottom half of the league in yards all three years. That includes a 29th-place finish this season due to the struggles of new quarterback Brock Osweiler.

In December, O'Brien lamented the team's lackluster production in the red zone and admitted coaching was part of the issue, per Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com:

"

Those are very difficult play-calls. We've had a lot of those lately and we have to figure out how to stop that. What do we do better? Can we run it better? Can we throw it quickly better? Can we do something a little bit different to get us down to the goal line so we can put our goal-line offense in and try to score? So we're working hard on that right now and we're going to continue to work on it and try to get it improved.

"

He added: "We've got to just do a better job of coaching it and get our players to execute it better."

While the offense has failed to find any semblance of a rhythm, the defense has thrived. After ranking 16th in yards allowed in O'Brien's first season, it's moved into the top five the past two years. The unit led the NFL by giving up just 301.3 yards per game in 2016.