Houston Texans: Pros, Cons of hiring Brian Flores or Lovie Smith

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for the Houston Texans head coaching search.

If you happened to be up late on Sunday night, you saw the chaos of what was happening with Houston Texans. First, Jonathon Gannon was told he wouldn’t be the head coach. Then, a few hours later, Josh McCown was also informed of the same fate.

Then, the QB coach for the Houston Texans, Pep Hamilton, got a midnight request for an interview from the Jacksonville Jaguars. If that wasn’t enough, Nick Caserio threw the world a curveball when word got out that Lovie Smith was going to basically be considered a finalist for the head coaching role.

Texans Twitter was ablaze with questions, confusion, and exhalations as at least McCown was out. With the team now down to deciding between two defensive gurus, what would be the pros and cons of hiring either candidate?

It’s taken the Houston Texans this long to get here, so who knows how long this “evaluation period,” if you will, is going to last. It’s been repeatedly said that the Texans can’t mess this hire up, but that was with McCown in the mix.

With that being said, we’ll take a look into both Flores and Smith’s careers to see what they bring to the table.

Brian Flores still remains the best head coaching option on the market

Pros

Brian Flores has been through a lot in his head coaching career and also carries over a ton of experience from being a part of the New England Patriots organization for 15 seasons. Those four Super Bowl rings and the knowledge of working with Bill Belichick make for an impressive resume.

When Flores was hired in Miami, they had one of the worst teams the season before his arrival. However, Flores had a strong finish to his first season, going 3-2 in the final month of play and knocking the New England Patriots out of a first-round bye. It also gave us this glorious simultaneous call from Kevin Harlan (who deserves to call a Super Bowl on TV).

It’s a big reason why Kansas City went on to win Super Bowl LIV that season with the home-field advantage.

Flores then parlayed that late-season success from 2019 into 2020, where the 10-win Dolphins were win-and-get-in in Week 17 (that didn’t happen). A nine-win season in 2021 despite starting the season 1-7 shows that Flores can rescue a team from the depths of disaster and give them a chance to make the playoffs.

It was the first time the Dolphins had back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the early 2000s.

Cons

Flores has been described as “abrasive.” That may be why his relationship with Dolphins Owner Stephen Ross soured so much. The reports that Ross allegedly offered $100K per loss to tank the Dolphins’ season in 2019 would definitely be something that would cause conflict.

Flores also has an alleged history of disagreeing with draft picks. According to reports, Flores was not the biggest believer in quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and wanted to draft Justin Herbert instead. This boiled over in their late-season loss to the Tennessee Titans this year, when Flores got in a screaming match with Tagovailoa mid-game.

As a result of this, Flores was unhappy and reportedly didn’t speak much to the rest of his staffers from Thanksgiving onwards to the end of the season.

Regardless of whosever side of the story that you’re on, it’s clear to see that was not an ideal situation to be in.

Lovie Smith brings an incredible defensive history, but the same cannot be said for the offense.

Pros

Lovie Smith is the man who orchestrated the rise of the mid-2000s Chicago Bears and ultimately culminated in a Super Bowl XLI appearance. Smith has an 89-87 record as a head coach, with stops in Chicago and Tampa Bay.

Smith is a highly respected coach around the league, and a handful of Houston Texans players have expressed their hope that Smith gets the job. Smith has elevated defenses everywhere he goes- earning the respect of the players he coaches.

Cons

Smith hasn’t been an NFL head coach since the 2015 NFL season, so there may be a bit of rust in that fact itself. Smith spent time at the University of Illinois from 2016-2020 as their head coach, but it wasn’t anything to write home about.

Another big concern is the offense his teams have failed to produce. His teams that he’s coached on only had a top-ten offense in terms of points and yards just three times in 15 years. Yet, Smith didn’t see anything wrong with Rex Grossman and stuck with him at the quarterback position.

Smith ignored  Grossman for the second half of the 2006 season in which Grossman threw multiple three-pick-plus games. Looking at what was the weakest part of the Texans game last season? The offense, specifically the running game.

Houston ranked dead last in rushing yards last year. Smith has only had five times during his entire coaching career where his squad made it into the top ten of the league. That’s an average of 20th in the league.

Teams nowadays can overcome a bad defense, but not a bad offense. So who’s the right candidate for the job?

Who should be the Houston Texans’ next head coach?

Both candidates have their ups and downs. One has more relationship troubles with important figures of the organization, and the other has just never been that good on offense. So who gets the nod here?

The Houston Texans head coaching job should go to Brian Flores.

As much as the current players on the roster want Smith to be their new leader, the problem is Smith’s age. We saw how much of a disconnect the team last year had with David Culley at the helm. A younger and more fiery coach like Flores still reigns supreme.

Flores can spread his talents across the team and isn’t limited to just one side of the ball. Flores got Tagovailoa’s play to actually be elevated, unlike Smith and Grossman. Flores’ “tight ship” mentality and holding players to a standard is something Houston hasn’t seen in years. Dare I say since Gary Kubiak was around?

As of this writing, Flores is dominating the poll that we posted on Twitter. It’s going to probably take a few more days. At least there are better candidates at the end now.