Texans fire controversial EVP of football operations Jack Easterby
The Houston Texans are making a big change in their front office. The team announced on Monday that they've fired (or "mutually agreed to part ways with") executive vice president of football operations Jack Easterby has been fired. The news was reported earlier by ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Houston Texans mutually agreed to part ways with Executive Vice President of Football Operations Jack Easterby.
A statement from Texans Chair and CEO Cal McNair: pic.twitter.com/aTMOAhVb5K— James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) October 17, 2022
A significant shakeup in Houston: Texans are parting ways with their executive vice president of football operations Jack Easterby, sources tell ESPN. Houston hired Easterby in 2019 and he had a major voice in the organization.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 17, 2022
Easterby, a former team chaplain for the New England Patriots, was hired in 2019 by Cal McNair, who had just taken over as owner of the franchise following the death of his dad, Bob. Easterby was originally hired as executive vice president of team development, but was promoted to EVP of football operations just a year later.
The hiring of Easterby and his subsequent promotion was controversial in the NFL, since Easterby had no real football operations experience. He was originally hired by the Patriots as a character coach, the only one in the NFL, and was also team chaplain, leading bible studies for players. While he did participate in drills and scouting with the Pats, his main job wasn't about football operations in any significant way.
That could be one of the key reasons Easterby's time with the Texans wasn't terribly successful. He likely helped make the decision to appoint head coach Bill O'Brien as general manager, which eventually led to the two collaborating on the highly-criticized trade that sent DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for just a handful of draft picks. Hopkins and then-starting quarterback Deshaun Watson had grown disenchanted with team leadership, and sending Hopkins away for the equivalent of a bag of circus peanuts further alienated Watson, as did the hiring of former Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio, who replaced O'Brien as GM.
Watson was so disenchanted with Easterby's front office that he requested a trade at the end of the 2020 season — a situation that was quickly forgotten once Watson was accused of sexual misconduct and assault by several massage therapists and eventually sued.
The hiring of Easterby signaled that Cal McNair would be doing things differently than his dad. Bringing on a guy with minimal football operations experience to work in a football operations role certainly differentiated him from his father, but maybe not in the way he wanted.
