HOUSTON — After four days of evaluation, the Houston Texans have fired coach David Culley after one season on Thursday. And after the jettison of Culley, the Texans also fired offensive coordinator Tim Kelly in the process.
Under Kelly, the Texans finished the 2021 campaign with the No. 32 ranked offense in the league after averaging 16.5 points per game. Houston ended the season with a 4-13 record.
“We’ve been a little inconsistent, but we’ve gotten better — we’ve just been trying to find out who we are,” Culley said when asked about assessing Kelly’s performance ahead of the Texans’ Week 18 match against the Tennessee Titans. “We’ve gone through some changes with some different guys and whatnot, and we’ve gone through the quarterback thing. We’ve settled in right now.”
Culley added: “I think Tim (Kelly) and our offensive staff have done a good job of putting us in the right direction in doing that, and I think it has shown since our bye week.”
Kelly, 35, joined the Texans with former coach Bill O’Brien in 2014 as the team’s offensive quality control coach. After two seasons of working as a position coach, the Texans promoted Kelly to offensive coordinator in 2019.
Following the firing of O’Brien in October of 2020, Kelly was one of a few holdovers left from the previous regime.
With another vacancy on the coaching staff, the Texans could promote current passing game coordinator and quarterback coach Pep Hamilton to replace Kelly as the team’s new offensive coordinator.
