3 offseason moves by Jaguars’ AFC South rivals that made us laugh

3. The Texans hiring Lovie Smith as their head coach.

You could make the case that David Culley overachieved as the Houston Texans head coach in 2021, going 4-13 despite the fact that he was dealt a bad hand. Nevertheless, he was kicked to the curb after just one season on the job, and Lovie Smith was hired to take his place.

Look, there’s no doubt Smith is well-respected around the league, and as the Texans’ defensive coordinator last year, he got the most out of a unit that didn’t have much talent. Nevertheless, he will face an uphill battle as the head coach in 2022. While Houston has two first-round draft picks, they didn’t make many impact moves in free agency and they still have many roster holes to fill.

Moreover, Smith’s track record as a head coach is less than appealing. Sure, he took the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl in 2006 but that was a decade and a half ago. He did finish his tenure in the Windy City with an 81-63 record and two NFC Championship appearances. But during his two-year stint as the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he went 8-24. His time at the collegiate level wasn’t much better, and as the head coach at Illinois, Smith amassed a 17-39 record.

Smith recently said that anything can happen in Houston, including a one-year turnaround like the one the Cincinnati Bengals had last season. However, his recent win-loss record doesn’t suggest it will.