The Houston Texans are planning to go into the 2019 season without a General Manager, instead electing to spread the responsibilities among current front office staff.
ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter reported via Twitter Wednesday that the Houston Texans plan to keep their general manager position vacant for the 2019 season.
The Houston Texans are not hiring a general manager for the 2019 season and instead will divvy up those responsibilities amongst existing front-office members such as Matt Bazirgan, James Liipfert, Chris Olsen and Jack Easterby, per league sources. But no GM in 2019 for Houston.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 10, 2019
Matt Bazirgan currently holds the position of Director of Player Personnel, James Liipfert is the Director of College Scouting, Chris Olsen is Senior Vice President of Football Administration, and Jack Easterby is the Executive Vice President of Team Development.
The Texans interviewed multiple candidates to fill their GM role after firing Brian Gaine this summer. Houston was reportedly interested in former Cleveland Browns GM Ray Farmer and former Detroit Lions GM and current Vice President of Player Personnel with the San Francisco 49ers Martin Mayhew.
The preferred candidate, however, has always been Nick Caserio, the current Director of Player Personnel with the New England Patriots. In fact, the Texans requested permission to interview Caserio back in 2018 before the hiring of Gaine.
Caserio was poised to take the job this year until the Patriots alleged Houston was guilty of tampering.
While the Texans have dropped their pursuit of a General Manager for the 2019 season, Caserio will probably still be high on their list of candidates come when next offseason rolls around. Only time will tell if not having a General Manager on staff will backfire or if the four aforementioned staff members can hold down the fort through the entire regular season.