According to Rogers Sportsnet on Wednesday, the Houston Texans have hired David Culley of Sparta, Tennessee as their new head coach. The hiring of Culley is historic. That is because he is the oldest first-time National Football League head coach ever at 65 years of age.
Interestingly though Culley is still eight years younger than the Texans’ former interim head coach, and the coach that Culley is replacing, Romeo Crennel. It will also be interesting to see where Crenell, who is 73 years of age, fits into the Texans’ future plans.
Culley is now the fourth oldest current NFL head coach. He is behind Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks (69), Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots (68), and Bruce Arians of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (68). All Arians was able to do this season with the Buccaneers was take them to the Super Bowl. Tampa Bay will host the Kansas City Chiefs on February 7.
Culley has spent the last 27 seasons as an assistant coach. He was the wide receivers coach for the Buccaneers (1994-1995), the wide receivers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers (1996-1998), the wide receivers coach and later senior offensive assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles (1999-2012), the assistant head coach and wide receivers coach for the Chiefs (2013-2016), the quarterbacks coach for the Buffalo Bills (2017, 2018), and the assistant head coach, wide receivers coach and passing game co-ordinator for the Baltimore Ravens (2019, 2020).
Now the biggest test for Culley will be to convince Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, the face of the franchise, to stay. Watson has reportedly requested a trade. Among the teams interested at this time are the Carolina Panthers, New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, and the San Francisco 49ers.
This has been a busy offseason so far for the Houston Texans. On January 5, they named Nick Caserio as their new general manager.
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