Houston Texans Hire Carl Smith as Quarterback Coach
Houston Texans have hired Carl Smith as the new quarterback’s coach.
The Houston Texans announced the hiring of several new coaches for the 2019-2020 season. One name that jumps off the page is veteran Coach Carl Smith. Smith was named the new quarterback coach for the Texans today, filling the vacant spot left by Sean Ryan. Smith comes to Houston by way of the Seattle Seahawks as his most recent team.
Smith was with the Seahawks from 2011, helping develop Russell Wilson into one of the better Quarterbacks in the NFL. He has a pretty good track record of helping coach up some notable names in recent history in the NFL. He started his football career as a Graduate Assistant in 1971 at Cal Poly.
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Smith bounced around a little until finally landing in the NFL in 1986 as an offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints. Smith has worked for many head coaches including Jack Del Rio, Pete Carroll, and Eric Mangini. Smith has held a few positions over his career from offensive coordinator, quarterback coach, and assistant head coach most recently in Seattle for Pete Carroll helping coach Wilson and the Seahawks to victory in Super Bowl XLVIII.
This is a bit of an unorthodox hire for Bill O’Brien who tends to promote from within rather than hire from the outside. This hiring helps shore up the offensive coordinator promotion of Tim Kelly by allowing Kelly and O’Brien both, a good voice from the outside to help both game plan and dictate things moving forward for Deshaun Watson. The Texans appear to be focusing their attention heavily on making coaching hires that will have a significant impact on Watson’s development.
It will be interesting to see how Smith can impact the growth of Watson, and if he can help mold him into an elite quarterback capable of thriving in the postseason. Smith helped develop Wilson into one of the leagues best quarterbacks and seems to be, on paper, one of the best coachings hires of Bill O’Brien’s career in Houston outside of hiring special teams coach Brad Seely last season.
One area the Texans hope to improve upon will be the number of times Watson is sacked, he was sacked an NFL high 62 times. Smith and company will look to help Watson improve upon his quick decision making to help reduce these numbers and protect Watson from taking unnecessary hits.
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Watson already possesses the unique gift of being able to evade defenders and make plays with his legs; he’ll just need small fine tuning to refine his decision making to help protect himself throughout an NFL season.