The Texans fired David Culley on Thursday, ending what may have been one of the most astonishing end-to-end charades in recent NFL history. Culley, the 66-year-old longtime assistant, was brought to Houston and tasked with coaching one of the worst top-down rosters in modern times, did better than anyone expected, and lost his work after taking No. 1 in the AFC. seed on the brink at the end of the season.
The whole setup was designed to fail. Houston was designed to sell not just its struggling quarterback, but a host of role-playing veterans as well. The Texans were designed to sink and eventually regain some of the equity draft that Culley’s predecessors spent. What they didn’t seem to anticipate was that a coach would come in and win as many games as the much more talented Giants, finishing the season with nearly the same record as Matt Rhule and the Panthers.
If Culley was fired for doing a bad job, what is the standard for doing a good job in the NFL during a full organizational rebuild, and what responsibility does anyone have to prevent or punish a process that smells of premeditation and further undermines the cause? from Black Trainers Everywhere? Coach gossip throughout the year cynically linked the Texans to a former Patriots assistant or another in due course. It seemed like maybe Houston had someone in mind, couldn’t get it, and ended up installing a backup plan on the fly. ESPN reported In the wake of Culley’s firing, only two years of his contract were guaranteed, which is the standard length for most assistants and half the length of most head coach contracts.
But in Culley, the Texans found someone who was going to make the most of an opportunity, no matter how twisted the opportunity presented itself: someone who diligently faced questions about Deshaun Watson every day, taking the public hits. for a scandal that preceded his arrival and hung over the entire season. The team dismantled the Chargers. He defeated the Titans once and twice eliminated the division rivals Jaguars, who ended up solidifying as the square-wheeled wagon the Texans were supposed to be.
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Firing Culley after this kind of performance, winning games with Tyrod Taylor and third-round rookie Davis Mills, proves that cynical talk is correct. A shameful trend continues of minority coaches in the NFL getting half the track as their white counterparts, requiring gigantic expectations to succeed in impossible scenarios. Two years for Vance Joseph in Denver without a quarterback. A year in Arizona for Steve Wilks, with Josh Rosen at the center. Jim Caldwell in Detroit after a 9–7 season, only to see a long cavalcade of ineptitude parade through town after him.
Would the Texans have fired Josh McDaniels for going 4-13? Would they have offered another coach a two-year contract?
Maybe Culley understood the circular saw he was walking on. Signing a contract like that in the first place would lead us to believe it. Maybe you’ve gone around the block long enough to have seen the long road ahead, knew the deal, and decided to proceed anyway. If that’s the case, God bless you. But there is something unseemly about the examples they both unknowingly give.
Perhaps the Texans, after dozens of attempts, are the first franchise to actually create some kind of satellite camp for the Patriots (they have been heavily tied to recently fired Dolphins coach Brian Flores). Now that they’ve hired the general manager and character development coach, maybe we’ll also get the right Belichick assistant, and the right Belichick turf manager, and the right Belichick pencil sharpener, and for the better part of two decades, Houston. will win. a pocket full of Super Bowls and become the anchor point of the power of the NFL.
Or maybe they’re just doing what other teams have inadvertently done for years: fire someone who was perfectly capable and good, who significantly exceeded expectations, for the promise of something better. Undermine the already strained efforts of black coaches in the NFL, because that’s what the management playbook says you can do. Treat a good man’s good work like gravel under your tires.
If and when the Texans finally start giving permission for interviews, coaches should vigorously deny them, unless of course you know you’ve already been predestined as The Choice. Much of the process, like the Culley contract, was just for show.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.