Texans plan to hire Brian Gaine as new GM, extend contract of coach Bill O'Brien

PHOTOS: The bests and worsts from the Texans' 2017 season The Texans plan to hire Brian Gaine, the former vice president of player personnel for the Buffalo Bills, as the team's new general manager. The team is also planning on extending coach Bill O'Brien's contract. Browse through the photos above for the bests and worsts from the Texans' 2017 season. less PHOTOS: The bests and worsts from the Texans' 2017 season The Texans plan to hire Brian Gaine, the former vice president of player personnel for the Buffalo Bills, as the team's new general manager. The team is ... more Photo: Getty/Brett Coomer Photo: Getty/Brett Coomer Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Texans plan to hire Brian Gaine as new GM, extend contract of coach Bill O'Brien 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

The Texans are in negotiations to hire Brian Gaine as general manager and sign coach Bill O'Brien to a contract extension.

Gaine, Buffalo's vice president of player personnel, interviewed Tuesday.

Once Gaine's deal is official, the Texans are hoping to have O'Brien's extension wrapped up, too.

O'Brien has one year left on his contract and needs to hire six new assistant coaches because of firings, one retirement and one voluntary departure on his staff.

O'Brien and his staff are coaching in the Senior Bowl in two weeks. If he has an extension, it'll be easier for him to hire better assistants. Senior Bowl week is a job fair for out-of-work assistant coaches.

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Gaine, who worked as director of pro personnel and director of player personnel for three years (2014-16) under former general manager Rick Smith, had an impressive interview Tuesday.

Before coming to Houston, Gaine worked in scouting/personnel for the New York Jets (1999-2004), Dallas Cowboys (2005-2007) and Miami Dolphins (2008-2013).

The search committee of owner Bob McNair, vice chairman Cal McNair, president Jamey Rootes, O'Brien and Jed Hughes from the Korn Ferry search firm began interviews Monday with Jimmy Raye III, the Texans' vice president of football operations/assistant general manager.

Brian Gutekunst, Green Bay's director of college scouting at the time, came to Houston on Saturday and had dinner with O'Brien that night. At 2 a.m., he accepted an offer to become the Packers' new general manager to replace Ted Thompson.

Last week, when the Texans were putting together their list of candidates, they were denied permission to interview Philadelphia vice president of player personnel Joe Douglas, New England director of player personnel Nick Caserio and Patriots' director of college scouting Monti Ossenfort.

Teams can deny permission as long as their teams continue to play. Philadelphia and New England host divisional round games this weekend.