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Ex-NFL coach rips Texans for Lovie Smith firing

Lovie Smith. Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Former NFL coach rips Texans for Lovie Smith firing

By Eric Smithling | Last updated 1/9/23

Former NFL coach Tony Dungy blasted the Texans after news broke that the organization fired first-year head coach Lovie Smith hours after the team's regular-season finale.

What are the Texans doing. What kind of operation is this where you don’t have any convictions about supporting the coaches you hire. Who is going to want to coach there if you might only get one year to implement your plans. Two years in a row is ridiculous. https://t.co/Lrn6jyVs7P
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) January 9, 2023

Smith finished his first season in Houston by going 3-13-1. As a parting gift, he nudged the team out of the top spot in the upcoming NFL Draft with Sunday's last-second over the Colts win paired with the Bears' loss to the Vikings.

Perception is reality in the NFL, and the perception is the Texans franchise has many steps to take to return to respectability. As ESPN's Adam Schefter noted, next season will be the fourth consecutive season Houston has a new head coach.

Texans now will become the fourth team since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger to have a different head coach to start four straight seasons. The Texans have lost at least 12 games in three straight seasons and are the 9th team in Super Bowl era to lose 12+ games in three straight seasons.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 9, 2023

The constant upheaval is unsustainable and prospective coaching candidates should take notice.

Preseason odds had the over-under on the Texans' win total at 4.5, with the under being the favored outcome. The team turned out to be just as bad as many predicted coming into the season. The organization lived up to its reputation by unceremoniously firing Smith after setting him up to fail.

I know I’m not privy to everything that went into the Texans’ decisions the last two years, but it really feels like they have been terribly unfair to two straight coaches. Giving them so little talent to work with, then firing both after just one year. https://t.co/ewXlqgWWAx
— Mike Triplett (@MikeTriplett) January 9, 2023

The Houston Texans have fired Lovie Smith after 1 year. Using 2 Black Head Coaches to tank and then firing them after 1 year shouldn’t sit right with anyone.
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) January 9, 2023

Hiring Lovie Smith to an extremely untalented Texans team was only done to save face, checklist the Rooney rule, and erase the racial accusations it faced less than a year ago. And to fire him less than a year into rebuilding its franchise shows they are full of crap. Crazy!
— Fred Taylor (@FredTaylorMade) January 9, 2023

As Robert Griffin III noted, it's particularly egregious the Texans would hire two Black coaches in consecutive seasons to lead poorly constructed rosters only to fire them after one season apiece.

The team hired David Culley ahead of the 2021 season and Houston went 4-13.

The team is 11-38-1 over the past three seasons. The 11 wins are the fewest over a three-year span in franchise history (2002-2022).

Several of the moves the franchise has made over the years -- beginning with the De'Andre Hopkins trade to Arizona -- reveals that if the team is serious about winning, it has a strange way of showing it.

Houston's next head coach will have a lot of work to do, and maybe not much time to get it done. The roster has too many holes to fill in one offseason. A more pressing matter is changing the perception of the organization. Smith may be gone, but the Texans will stay where they are.

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