Texans promote George Godsey to offensive coordinator

HOUSTON -- The Houston Texans officially promoted quarterbacks coach George Godsey to offensive coordinator, head coach Bill O'Brien announced.

During his first year with the Texans, O'Brien did not have an offensive coordinator. He hired Godsey from New England to be the team's quarterbacks coach, and slowly gave him more responsibilities in running the team's offensive meetings. The process was similar to that which O'Brien himself went through in New England. O'Brien was still technically the team's quarterbacks coach when he began calling plays, only being officially promoted to offensive coordinator in 2011.

"There wasn't necessarily anything I wanted to see, it was more, 'Let's make sure we're getting on the same page here,'" O'Brien said of promoting Godsey. "Not just the first year, but the beginning of that first year. Hadn't coached with him in a couple years because he wasn't at Penn State with me. Just thought he did a heck of a job last year dealing with all the things that came up during the year, and he deserves this opportunity."

Godsey played for O'Brien at Georgia Tech. After college he played in the Arena Football League before turning to coaching. He began as a graduate assistant at UCF and was the quarterbacks coach and running backs coach there. He entered the NFL in 2011 as an offensive assistant. In 2012 and 2013, Godsey was the Patriots' tight ends coach.

"Very bright guy," O'Brien said. "Works really hard at the game studying not only what we're doing but studying the tendencies around the rest of the league on both sides of the ball. He along with the other guys on this staff, he has a lot of good input in the staff meetings. ... I think the players respect the type of teacher that he is and how demanding he is."

O'Brien said both he and Godsey will continue to work with the quarterbacks and the team will not add a quarterbacks coach. Offensive assistant Pat O'Hara, hired this offseason, has helped with the quarterbacks, focusing on developmental player Tom Savage.