Former NFL coach rips Texans for Lovie Smith firing

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. 

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.

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.