David Culley was dealt an unfavorable situation in January 2021.
After spending 27 years as an assistant coach in the NFL, he was finally going to get his first crack at being in charge on the sidelines of a Houston Texans squad with no salary cap space, bloated contracts, no first or second-round picks, and a disgruntled three-time Pro Bowl quarterback.
Even though the Texans finished 4-13, their second straight season of posting four wins, Culley relished the opportunity.
“I enjoyed every minute of it,” Culley told reporters Monday. “Learned a lot, a lot of things, like I said before earlier, in that coaching manual I had to go through that weren’t in there, but that’s okay. I was told that was going to happen. But again, from start to finish, each game was different. Always something new happening that was a learning experience for me, but for the most part I just kind of used all the experience that I’ve got working with all the different head coaches, all the situations they’ve been through. I ended up having to go through a bunch of those, and I just kind of used the stuff that I’ve learned from them to handle those particular situations.”
For Culley, some of his growth as a coach came from trial and error.
“As the season went along, any mistakes that you made that you feel like you really needed to not do, or do this better, you make sure you do that the next time,” said Culley. “The same thing with our players, as far as (not) being a repeat offender. I was hoping I wasn’t a repeat offender in some of the things that I did early that happened later on in the season.”
Houston sports fans are hopeful after an offseason with more salary cap space and four draft picks in the top-100, including No. 3 overall, that the team won’t be repeat offenders as a bottom-10 club in the NFL.