D.J. Swearinger, now with the Redskins, says the Texans trashed his name, so he’s looking forward to Houston’s visit.
The Texans drafted Swearinger in the second round in 2013, and he played two seasons there before they released him in the 2015 offseason. Tampa Bay claimed him off waivers the following day.
When Houston drafted him, Gary Kubiak was the head coach. A year later, Bill O’Brien took over. Swearinger played mostly as a nickel linebacker under Kubiak, but he started as a strong safety under O’Brien.
Swearinger preferred Kubiak’s approach.
“Kubiak let me be myself, let me do whatever as long as I played ball,” he said. “O’Brien was a control guy: ‘You can’t do this. You can’t do that.’ It came to a point where the DB coach [John Butler] took something I said wrong about the film and told coach O’Brien. I remember it like it was yesterday. We stopped the walk-through. He cut the walk-through short. O’Brien talked to me and all the defensive coaches and chewed me out, dog. I’ll never forget that. I’m like, ‘Dang.'”
On a conference call with Washington reporters Tuesday, O’Brien said of Swearinger’s accusations:
DJ Swearinger has a serious grudge against Bill O'Brien. "He yelled at me in my face for about a minute in front of all the defensive coaches and I sort of lost a lot of respect for the DB coach at the time and O’Brien because of how that situation went." https://t.co/VMDq5qY6FF
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) November 13, 2018
Swearinger said the issue stemmed from a film session in which he said he reminded another defensive back about getting proper depth in a cover-zero call because the offense could use max protection. Swearinger left the room shortly thereafter. He said other defensive backs told him the position coach was upset.
“They said, ‘When you left he was like, I don’t know what Swearinger is talking about but the blitz hits right here,'” Swearinger said. “I was like, ‘Bro, I wasn’t even talking about that play.’ I was going off the film and he took something the wrong way and then they had that argument and I’m like, ‘What’s going on.’ From that day I never could be myself in Houston again. Bro, I’m talking about film and you tell that back to the coach? I don’t know what to say. After that I could never find my groove.”
Swearinger said that’s the reason Houston benched him for three games in the 2014 season.
Chalk this up as a thing someone needs to do in order to motivate themselves.
