Bobby Slowik's firing as Texans offensive coordinator is NFL's most shocking move

The Houston Texans made the most shocking move of the 2024-25 NFL coaching cycle on Friday, firing offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

In a coaching carousel that has seen its fair share of strange occurances (the entire Liam Coen to the Jaguars saga, for example), this move might be the single most shocking one.

During the 2023-24 season, Houston's offense was something of a revelation under Slowik. Quarterback C.J. Stroud and the Texans were one of the hottest units in the NFL, sitting just outside the top 10 in points and total yards, culminating in an incredible 45-14 stomping of the Cleveland Browns in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. Things were going so well that Slowik was one of the hottest names in coaching searches, interviewing with multiple teams, but didn't land any of the jobs before returning to Houston.

This season, things didn't go to plan in Houston.

The offense regressed badly, thanks to an offensive line that was by all accounts one of the worst in the NFL. They ranked 19th in scoring and 22nd in total yards, and 20th and 25th in those categories throwing the ball. They gave up the fourth-most sacks in the NFL this season, and even the run game suffered. Joe Mixon was forced to work incredibly hard for his 1,000 yard season, and even when he wasn't sacked, Stroud found himself under pressure a lot this season.

That said, there were plenty of bright spots offensively as well. Nico Collins established himself as a star, keeping Houston in games after both Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell went down. Mixon had an excellent season despite the offensive line struggles, and Stroud showed plenty of flashes in between running for his life.

Firing a coordinator like Slowik after one down year, even one as frustrating as this one has been, is certainly surprising. There's no denying Houston's issues, but it's not like they're not fixable. Finding offensive line help is priority one, and getting full seasons out of Diggs and Dell would go a long way towards alleviating some of the problems this team faced this season.

Stroud's lack of progression is slightly concerning, to be sure, but the sophomore slump is a well-documented phenomenon in professional sports, as teams learn more about a player's tendencies after their rookie year and adapt.

For Slowik, he's still widely respected in coaching circles, and with vacancies for offensive coordinators in Detroit and Tampa (as well as the assorted head coaching vacancies that have been filled), it's hard to imagine he's going to be out of a job all that long.

It's clear Houston was in no mood to wait and see with Slowik and the offense; they see their contention window as being wide open right now, and wanted to make a change before things got worse. But it's a definite gambit; there's no guarantee that Slowik's replacement will mesh with the players in place, or that Stroud will click with the offense as well as he did last year.

Ultimately, whatever led to this move, the Texans were willing to take that risk to make sure Stroud's development continues unabated.

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Bobby Slowik's firing as Texans offensive coordinator is NFL's most shocking coaching change

By Sam Westmoreland | 2:33 PM EST