Houston Texans Coaching News: Texans Hire New Defensive Line Coach and Offensive Assistant

Before the flood gates of free agency begin, teams around the NFL are working to build out their coaching staffs. With a new head coach in charge, Lovie Smith has been busy getting his guys into the building.

Houston’s defensive line coach Bobby King left Houston for Tennessee to join his friends Zach Cunningham, Dontrelle Hilliard, Dylan Cole, David Quessenberry, Mike Vrabel, D’Onta Foreman, Tim Kelly, Ben Jones, and MyCole Pruitt. Kelly will be the Titans’ linebackers coach. The Texans filled the vacancy King created by hiring former NFL defensive lineman Jacques Cesaire, who was the assistant defensive line coach in Buffalo.

The pessimist will weigh in and say the Buffalo Bills’ pass rush has been lackluster the last two seasons, and aside from Ed Oliver, the young defensive prospects that Brandon Beane added haven’t made the expected impact. Here’s looking at you, A.J. Espenesa. The optimist will just say this is a good hire because the Texans made the decision, and for that crew, that’s all it takes.

Houston also added Grambling State offensive coordinator Ted White as an offensive assistant. White is a former NFL bounce-around quarterback who even played in Europe. White was on Pep Hamilton’s staff when he was the head coach of the XFL’s D.C. Defenders before the league folded.

Don’t look at what White’s quarterbacks did at Grambling State.

Aside from Cesaire, the key trend of the Texans’ coaching decisions is that they have either worked with Lovie Smith or Pep Hamilton before, or they have a tie to New England and Nick Caserio (see Ben McDaniels’ promotion). They are bringing back old pals who didn’t have success at their previous stops.

Hopefully it works. The Texans have young talent they need to coach up and develop.