Why The Texans Like Lovie Smith For Coach

Lovie Smith may not have been a candidate for the Houston Texans for long - but it appears he was involved from day one.

It seems that the Lovie Smith era of the Houston Texans is drawing closer by the minute, with Ian Rapoport reporting the deal could be concluded on Monday.

The news of Smith's candidacy came out of left field on Sunday evening, nearly one month after David Culley was fired, and after the Texans had already conducted second interviews with their three supposed finalists.

"Obviously it didn't start with Lovie Smith, I'm not gonna say that, it started with Brian Flores, and Josh McCown, and Jonathan Gannon," Rapoport said on The Pat McAfee Show.

But according to Rapoport, while Smith was a curveball candidate for most outside of the organization, he in fact was involved to some degree from the get-go and ultimately everything fell into place for the former Chicago Bears coach.

"Lovie Smith was basically in discussions with members of the Texans front office, including Nick Caserio the general manager, about several of the candidates and they have interviewed plenty of candidates," Rapoport told NFL Network. "Then at some point, the search went from - okay let's have Lovie Smith talk about these candidates with us, to maybe Lovie Smith is the candidate."

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At 63, it's hard not to compare Smith's seemingly impending appointment to that of Culley last year who at 65, was viewed by many as a stop-gap coach. And per Rapoport, Smith's contract may well "end up being a little bit of a shorter-term contract." While he did say that this "doesn't mean anything," given Houston's track record this past year it's hard not to read further into that - if indeed this proves to be the case.

Rapoport also suggested that former finalist McCown may well end up on Houston's staff in some capacity this year, with the Texans taking a lineage approach to their coaching tree. 

"It sounds like there is a chance that Josh McCown is on this staff," Rapoport told McAfee. "So, if that's the case then maybe this is a situation where he comes on staff, he gets the experience that he needs, he leads and helps and kind of gets them where they're going, and then maybe at some point ends up taking over. I'm not saying that's definitely going to happen but it does seem the door has been opened to that possibility because this organization clearly does like whatever Josh McCown has."

Smith's name may not have been thrown into the mix until late in the process, but it appears he was involved all along. And it's hard to imagine he'd take on this job not knowing that one of his tasks is to mentor his potential heir-apparent.