Could Bobby Slowik Be Looking at His Future This Week?

With a former colleague of his calling the shots in Miami, is that the future for the Texans offensive coordinator?

Bobby Slowik is the offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans. This week he might be looking at his future as an old friend comes to town.

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel and Slowik coached together in Washington and then later in San Francisco for the 49ers on Kyle Shannahan’s coaching staff. The two former colleagues will see each other tomorrow as the Dolphins are in town for joint practices with the Texans.

While both call the plays for the offense, McDaniel has the more prestigious title. He’s a head coach and is headed into his second year in that job.

Bobby Slowik has to think there’s a chance he’s in McDaniel’s shoes. And sooner rather than later.

Slowik is four years younger than McDaniel, but his coaching resume isn’t nearly as long or as illustrious as the Miami offensive wizard. Despite that, the NFL is an offensive-driven league, and coaches who can get their team to score points are in high demand. Especially coaches from the Shanahan/Sean McVay tree which McDaniel and Slowik come from in their careers.

2015 was the last time the hiring cycle featured a majority of coaches with a defensive background, and ironically the lone offensive mind from that cycle, Gary Kubiak, won a Super Bowl.

Offense is coveted, so Slowik’s rise could be meteoric.

Especially considering the circumstances Slowik is in. Success in Houston would cement his legitimacy fast. A rookie quarterback, tons of new skill position players, an underachieving offensive line, and his system with him calling plays for the first time? Make that work and Bobby Slowik might talk to teams in 2024 about being the next whiz-kid offensive genius to get the big headset.

Is it crazy to think Slowik is coaching his final season in Houston? Yes. Am I likely ahead of myself with this line of thinking? No doubt. Is it impossible? Absolutely not.

The constant compliments from players about how he coaches and teaches continue to rattle in my brain. Someone who can build a foundation, a point Slowik has hammered he is trying to accomplish, would be attractive to teams who have fired their coach. The offense building to more and more success and ease in practice is nice to see. It’s early, but there seems to be something there with Slowik.

None of what has impressed me about Slowik matters if he can’t send complicated paragraph-long play calls into a headset and have C.J. Stroud and 10 of his teammates put points on the board. Results for the offense alone will put him on the team’s radar.

It shouldn’t be a constant thought. Might not even garner more than just a passing idea for Slowik who has appeared and seems laser-focused on preparing an offense for a grind of no less than five months. But I’ve already thought about Slowik looking into a mirror essentially for the next few days.

Slowik was thrilled to share a few days ago about his former colleague.

“Me and Mike worked really closely together in 2019, 2020, 2021,” he said. “We had a really close relationship. Honestly, we did a lot of things that coordinators had to do to help Kyle [Shanahan] because he had head coach responsibilities. So, me and him working hand in hand in the run game and in the pass game, when you go through stuff like that and the season has ups and downs, you get really close to somebody. We’ve often talked football, life, all kinds of things. We see football through a very similar lens a lot of times. He’s an extremely, extremely bright, creative individual. I mean, really, really smart. He sees things that not everyone else can kind of see. It was awesome for me to be around him and kind of soak some of that stuff in.”

Maybe Slowik sees his friend this week and soaks in the job and responsibilities of a head coach, something that very well could be in his own future.

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Here is a YouTube from Monday night talking about the big week for C.J. Stroud and the defense with the Dolphins in town.