Jamey Rootes - Pro Football Rumors

Texans’ President Jamey Rootes Resigns

February 10th, 2021 at 10:45am CST by Zachary Links

Texans President Jamey Rootes has resigned, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Rootes was rankled by the Texans’ recent restructuring, (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport), which may mean that he was less-than-thrilled about the hiring of new GM Nick Caserio.

Rootes had spent more than 20 years with Houston, overseeing business and administrative duties. He was also part of the team’s GM search committee — his recommendations were largely ignored, Mike Florio of PFT (on Twitter) hears, and that proved to be problem.

“I’m young enough to find a new opportunity to create something new,” the 54-year-old told John McClain of the Houston Chronicle. “I want to carve out ample time to decide what’s best for me going forward. This [resignation] is difficult because of the people. They’re special to me. I feed off the energy of our fans, our staff and our customers, and I’m going to miss them.”

Rootes says he’ll take at least six months off. In the interim, the Texans will hand his responsibilities over to senior vice president of corporate development Greg Grissom. Meanwhile, on the football side of things, the Texans will try to keep Deshaun Watson happy and in H-Town. As it stands, Watson wants out and the Dolphins could be the favorite to land him.

Texans GM To Control Team Personnel, HC Bill O’Brien To Be On Search Committee

January 3rd, 2018 at 7:20pm CST by GregGoldstein

There’s new developments regarding the Texans quest to find a new general manager. The team’s owner, Bob McNair, told reporters today that the person they eventually hire will have control of personnel over current head coach Bill O’Brien, relays John McClain of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). However, McClain does note that O’Brien, along with team president Jamey Rootes, will be with McNair and Cal McNair as the four-man the team conducting the search.

“The GM is going to have full authority over personnel, and he’ll report to Cal and me,” said the Texans owner. “That’s our message to potential GMs, We know what we want. We’ll pick somebody that Cal and I like, coach O’Brien likes and Jamey likes. We pretty much agree on what we’re looking for.” (via McClain on Twitter)

While the job should be sought after by many people across the league, McNair also stated that he doesn’t want the general manager to reshape front office, although he did say that he could allow for some potential new hires given who they ultimately agree to bring into the organization.

“He may have 1 or 2 key people he’s worked with, and he might want to bring them in,” said McNair. “That’s reasonable. It’s also reasonable to ask that person to work with the people we have this year and Cal what he thinks. We’re not going to have somebody come in and clean house.” (via McClain)

This is an interesting process for the Texans ownership group because executive vice president Rick Smith‘s situation is really up-in-the-air given that he will be home with his wife who is battling cancer. McNair does seem intent on waiting a year to feel out what Smith’s situation may look like in 2019.

“We don’t know what Rick might do,” said the owner. “That’s something we’ll discuss a year from now. The only concern is to take care of his family, and we’re not going beyond that.” (via McClain)

There’s already been some GM candidates speculated, including: Nick Caserio (Patriots), Brian Gaine (Bills) and Brian Gutekunst (Packers). Although, there should be more names that will arise in the next week or two. It’s expected to be a quick process and we now know that the new hire will have primary control on the roster entering the 2018 season.