The Houston Texans are looking to a coach who succeeded in the ACC this season to fill their offensive coordinator position.
Houston interviewed Jeff Nixon for their offensive coordinator vacancy, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. Nixon served as the Syracuse offensive coordinator last season. Fowler pointed out that in addition to working for Syracuse, Nixon worked as the New York Giants’ running back coach in 2023.
Syracuse OC Jeff Nixon Syracuse interviewed for the #Texans OC job, per sources.
Nixon was the Giants RB coach in 2023 and coordinated a successful Syracuse offense last year.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) January 28, 2025
Nixon, 50, played his college ball at Penn State. He went into coaching in 1997 and has spent time in both the college and NFL ranks.
New Syracuse coach Fran Brown hired Nixon for the 2024 season, and the move worked out great for all sides. Syracuse went 10-3 and averaged 34.1 points per game, which ranked them 21st of 134 teams. The year before they averaged 23.5 points per game (92nd of 133) under Dino Babers, so what they accomplished in 2024 was a significant turnaround.
The Texans are in the market for a new OC after surprisingly firing Bobby Slowik. Slowik was receiving interest for head coach jobs last year, and a year later he was fired.
The Texans job is a desirable one thanks largely to the presence of quarterback CJ Stroud, as well as the proven leadership of their head coach, DeMeco Ryans.