Texans hire Nick Caserio as new GM, 6 vacancies remain

On Tuesday evening, reports emerged that the Houston Texans have decided on their next general manager. As first reported by the Houston Chronicles John McClain, the next Texans general manager will be Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio.

This is a somewhat surprising hire for several reasons. First, it’s the Texans going right back to the Patriots tree despite just getting over the Bill O’Brien era, which, obviously, didn’t end well for Houston. It’s also surprising because Houston hired a search firm who recommended five candidate—none of them being Caserio. Additionally, just a couple hours before news broke, the Texans announced they had interviewed Trent Kirchner for the job. They never formally announced an interview of Caserio, though it reportedly happened earlier on Tuesday.

That all being said, Caserio has been a popular GM candidate for year. Previous league rules had allowed the New England Patriots to block interview requests, which they had several times in the past, specifically with the Texans in both 2018 and 2019. However, in league meetings back in May, the NFL changed rules to prevent teams from including contractual provisions in upper-tier employees that prevented upward mobility.

Caserio has always been the true right-hand man in New England, so it’s understandable why he’s a hot commodity in the Texans’ point of view. But from a Detroit Lions perspective, this is fairly good news. It was always highly unlikely Detroit would go right back to the Patriots well, and now there’s one fewer team to compete with for their next GM hire.

The teams that are still looking for a GM include the Lions, Jaguars, Falcons, Panthers, Broncos and Washington Football Team. On Tuesday, the Lions interviewed Terry Fontenot for the job. They have three more GM interviews remaining this week. You can track all of their latest progress in the GM search right here.