Las Vegas Raiders 2022 opponent offseason review: Houston Texans

Las Vegas Raiders 2022 opponent offseason review: Houston Texans

Coaching Changes

Last season, the Texans weren’t really as bad as their 4-11 record would’ve indicated, as they were competitive in many games. They actually helped out the Raiders in 2021 when they beat the Chargers in Week 16 with a score of 41-29.

But that wasn’t enough for David Culley to save his job, as the Texans fired him, and eventually ended up promoting his defensive coordinator Lovie Smith to replace him. This will be Lovie’s third stint as a head coach in the NFL, as he was the Chicago Bears Head Coach from 2004 – 2012.

During that time, he led them to their most successful season in recent memory, which included a Super Bowl appearance with Rex Grossman as his quarterback.

He also served as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ head coach for two seasons from 2014-2016 and went on to coach the University of Illinois before rejoining the NFL ranks as a Defensive Coordinator with the Texans last season. Lovie will not hire a defensive coordinator underneath him as he will handle the defensive game planning and play calls on game day.

The Texans did do a good job retaining Pep Hamilton as offensive coordinator to help run his offense. Hamilton was a former offensive coordinator with the Colts for two seasons, the Chargers quarterbacks coach in 2020, and spent last season as the Texans passing game coordinator & quarterbacks coach.

Hamilton is also a coach that Raider Nation wanted to pair with Jim Harbaugh when it was rumored that the Michigan head coach was interested in the Raiders head coaching job.