Kelly, Caley, po-TAY-to, po-TAH-toe, no?
As announced earlier this week, your Houston Texans brought former Los Angeles Rams tight ends coach and passing game coordinator Nick Caley into the fold as the new offensive coordinator.
Last week’s poll had a whopping 64% of respondents stumping for former Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly. Somehow, many seem to have forgotten the controversy and failure that marred much of Kelly’s last NFL stint, prior to him returning to the college ranks.
As often happens, Kelly had some amazing success, then the rest of the NFL caught up with him and that all ended. Badly.
In fact, Kelly is no stranger to controversy and poor player relations. Both threads seem to weave in and out of his coaching career.
For those who really wanted him in Battle Red, consider him signing with the Las Vegas Raiders instead a very possible blessing in disguise. A quick ‘net search of “Chip Kelly Controversy” should help you understand why.
Getting back to Nick Caley, our own @VBallRetired did a solid writeup on him yesterday.
BattleRedBlog
Yes, [Nick Caley] did not call plays and that is why he would want to leave Los Angeles in the first place. Like Slowik, he was involved in the passing game plan. The difference is that he is coming from the Sean McVay coaching tree and not the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree. While Shanahan himself has been very successful, it could be argued that the McVay coaching tree has had more success. Since 2017, five different head coaches have come from that tree and a number of other coordinators have as well. Some coaches are good at coaching players and being leaders of men. Some coaches are good at developing coaching talent. As one of the masthead quipped privately, the list of Mike Tomlin assistants in higher positions in the league is practically non-existent. Obviously, McVay not only gets a lot out of his players, but he also works to prepare coaches for more responsibility.
Are there some pretty sizable unknowns with the Caley? Absolutely.
However, there are also a lot of knowns.
As in, Caley and general manager Nick Caserio were both under Bill Belichik on the New England Patriots staff for some time. From 2015 to 2020, Caley and Caserio worked with a singular vision of winning super bowls for New England. In that span, the Patriots went 62-18 and nailed 2 Super Bowl wins.
Some football people I respect are pretty stoked about this as a choice. I will be interested to hear from the #Texans to hear their thoughts.
In the meantime, welcome Nick Caley. You are now a Texan. Houston wants all the badasses, we need him to be one. Next his staff. https://t.co/Gsh5NHCCJk
— Stephanie Stradley (@StephStradley) February 3, 2025
During his time in New England, Caley worked with all-pro tight end Rob Gronkowski, who had 1,084 receiving yards in 2017.
While we all likely have New England Fatigue at this stage, there’s no arguing Nick Caserio has been good for the Texans and the city of Houston. Can Caley bring equivalent levels of success to the offensive coordinator role? We sure hope so. This offense has the potential to be scary-good.
That brings us to today’s question: